Alwaght- While American officials claim that the reason behind the US illegal military presence in Iraq is helping the country’s security and stability; their actions prove the opposite.
Recently, Iraqi political analyst Moayed al-Ali warned about the measures of the US ambassador in Baghdad, Alina L. Romanowsky, and her meetings with top officials, saying that Washington is trying to relocate ISIS terrorists from Al-Hawl camp in Syria to Iraq under a secret plan meant to sink the country into insecurity again. The US ambassador's deeds and her meetings with a number of influential figures, the last of whom was the Iraqi Minister of Immigration, were efforts to serve terrorism and provide new ground for the criminal elements of ISIS, added al-Ali.
According to the American program, families of ISIS terrorists are to be settled in Kirkuk, Diyala, and in the vicinity of the capital Baghdad. These provinces are almost far from the control of the central government and are located in the Kurdistan region, and the US, which has more military bases and forces in these provinces, can easily strengthen these terrorists. Over the past year, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, carried out dozens of operations to obliterate ISIS elements in Kirkuk and Diyala, but the increase in the activity of this group in recent months shows that its foreign backers continue to support it.
A fortnight ago, a number of Iraqi military and political officials and experts had warned about the US plot to revitalize terrorist activities in the country. Ahmad Rahim, a member of the Security and Defense Committee of the Iraqi parliament, pointed the measures of the American military in support of the terrorists.
“Terrorist groups have taken shelter in some places in Diyala, especially the heights of Hamrin and the suburbs, and they use it to target the security forces,” he warned.
Also, political pundit Sabah al-Aghili cautioned against American military presence on Iraq-Syrian borders, warning that this presence jeopardizes security of the two countries, especially Syria’s as the country that now is unable to exert control over its borders. The border strip is the launching pad for terrorist groups with the aim of infiltrating Iraq by orders from the US for domination of the border lines to use them against security forces.
The US is the founder of ISIS, the world’s most heinous terrorist group. When the group was running rampant in Iraq before its defeat in 2017 with unwavering assistance of Iran, Americans put the skids under the Iraqi anti-terror campaigns, and even documents emerged to prove that American helicopters air-dropped food and ammunition to ISIS fighters when they were caught by Iraqi fire. Americans even helped terrorist ringleaders to flee to use them as levers against Iraqis in the future. Although ISIS’s central core was obliterated in 2017, the US did not lose hope and in recent years has strived in a variety of ways to boost the group’s sleeper cells.
Al-Hawl camp, the ticking bomb of ISIS re-emergence
The Al-Hawl camp, home to 56,000 ISIS fighters and their families, is located in northeastern Syria and just 10 kilometers away from Iraqi border. The camp is run by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), best known for being infantry for the American military in Syria since 2014. Baghdad officials have repeatedly announced their readiness to close down this camp, but the foreign parties have no will to settle the case of ISIS families. In recent years, hundreds of families of terrorists have been handed over to the Iraqi government, and a large number of them are citizens of other countries whose governments do not intend to take them back.
With no international aids delivered to the Al-Hawl camp, its residents are living in a miserable situation. Save the Children organization, in its recently published report on the situation of ISIS families in Syria camp said that about 7,000 foreign children in Syria are still at risk of abuse and violence. This organization stressed that these children are living in deplorable conditions and there is no more time to waste about them. According to the report, in 2021 alone, 74 children lost their lives, 8 of whom were killed in the camp. According to the UN report, more than a hundred people were killed in this camp between January 2021 and June 2022.
Given the inappropriate living conditions of the terrorists’ families, the US seems to plan to reduce the camp’s residents under humanitarian excuses. The horrible conditions in the camp are giving the US a good alibi to persuade the Iraqi officials to take back at least their citizens.
The US Main goals
For Sure, the White House's new plan is not driven by humanitarian objectives and pursues political goals behind it. Having in mind that the new government of Iraq has recently assumed the power and Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has more leans towards anti-American occupation resistance groups, Washington is trying to make the new government ineffective by transferring the terrorists and destabilizing the country and consequently insinuating that the government formed by the resistance forces is a security threat and incite Iraqi public against PMV and PM al-Sudani.
Another motivation is the US expulsion case. With the new Iraqi parliament's plan to reactivate the bill demanding expulsion of the foreign occupation forces from the country, Washington seeks to re-immerse Iraq into chaos to distract Iraqi lawmakers from the expulsion bill. ISIS best serves this agenda. Americans want to justify their military presence under the ruse of helping Iraq battle ISIS.
The US new move comes as the resistance factions in Iraq are growing more and more powerful and are at their highest military and political level that posing a threat to the US interests in Iraq. Over the past years, Washington put strains on Baghdad government to remove PMF from the country’s security body but met its failure. Now not only the resistance forces are strong but also PMF-allied representatives have managed to win the majority in the parliament and install their favorite option in the post of prime minister.
Failing to politically realize its goals, the White House is plotting to revive ISIS to destabilize Iraq and undermine resistance groups. Actually, Washington finds ISIS sleeper cells beef-up the best option to retest its already failed plans in Iraq.
