Alwaght- Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) has warned Israeli regime against “playing with fire” after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted that Tel Aviv may attack the anti-terror volunteer fighters.
Moein al-Kazemi, a PMF commander, told the Iraqi Kurdistan's Rudaw television network on Sunday that the force was ready to stage a “strong” response to any aggression.
He said while Israel had yet to make a move, Israeli media were already testing the Iraqi government’s reaction to a possible attack by publishing bogus reports on the issue.
Nonetheless, any act of hostility against PMF, also known as PMF, could backfire on Tel Aviv as thousands of missiles in southern Lebanon were already aimed at Israeli targets, al-Kazemi warned.
The commander made it clear that PMF was an official military organization funded in part by the Iraqi government and therefore “had the right” to defend the country.
Pompeo, who paid a visit to Baghdad and Iraq’s Kurdistan region earlier this month, was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Popular Mobilization Forces.
Citing an unnamed Iraqi official, Russia’s RT Arabic service reported Thursday that the top US diplomat had relayed the message during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, the report said.
Israel’s long record of attacking anti-ISIS forces
Last June, Popular fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of ez-Zor, as they were chasing ISIS terrorists out of the area.
Both Syrian government and PMF declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border was deliberate and could have only been carried out by either Israel or the US.
An unnamed US official denied any involvement by American forces, triggering speculation by some media sections that Israel might have been behind the attack.
“We have reasons to believe that it was an Israeli strike,” the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the time.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also denounced the airstrike, saying it “expresses rejection and condemnation of any air operations targeting forces in areas where they are fighting ISIS, whether in Iraq or Syria or any other area where there is a battlefield against this enemy that threatens humanity.”
Israel has repeatedly launched airstrikes against Syrian military forces and other groups fighting ISIS in the Arab country, under the pretext of attacking Iranian military advisers in Syria.
Many observers believe the attacks are aimed at propping up the Takfiri terror groups which are on their last legs in the face of constant Syrian army advances.
PMF and other anti-terror Iraqi fighters are cooperating with the Syrian government to keep the two countries' joint border safe and repel terrorists.
