IRAN UPDATE: 6.3.17 - Iranian-backed Militias Reach Iraq-Syria Border

Iranian-backed Militias Reach Iraq-Syria Border - Seth J. Frantzman - http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Iranian-backed-militias-reach-Iraq-Syria-border-494286

In lightning offensive, Iraqi forces carve out strategic corridor from Baghdad to Syria.

raqi militias which are close to the Iranian regime have been able to reach a strategically situated village on the Syria-Iraq border. For Israel it means
forces that are close to Tehran pose a risk of linking up through Syria The Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), reached the village of Um Jaris on the border in northwestern Iraq on Monday. The PMU's Badr Brigade militia, which spearheaded
the dash over 40km. to the border, is close to the Iranian regime.

This represents a major strategic shift in northern Iraq as Islamic State loses power and a corridor stretching from the Iranian border to Syria is opened
up, dividing the Shi'ite - who are powerful in the south - from the Kurds in the north.

The PMU was organized in 2014 to fight Islamic State. It consists of several large, mostly Shi'ite militias, with differing backgrounds. In December 2016,
they were officially incorporated into the Iraqi government as a paramilitary force, raising alarms about their influence over a post-ISIS Iraq.

According to Jonathan Spyer, director of the Rubin Center for Research in International Affairs at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, "Badr is one
of the best organized and most veteran Iran-supported Shi'ite militias in Iraq.

Their leader, Hadi al-Amiri, is closely linked to the Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani." They are an effective and well-organized military unit with
armored vehicles and artillery, he said.

It was their armored vehicles that helped them cross quickly to the Syrian border, cutting off ISIS and liberating villages from ISIS near Sinjar along
the way. The PMU now controls territory south of the Kurdish Peshmerga and this has caused tensions.

Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet, reported that "the Hashd could soon resemble the Iraqi version of Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the powerful Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps in Iran." A Kurdish commander told Rudaw that he fears, "they have come here to fight the Peshmerga when ISIS is gone."

However, according to another Rudaw report, Shi'ite militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis said his men were liberating Yazidi villages where ISIS carried
out atrocities in 2014. "We feel happy and sad of the liberation of this village [Kocho] that faced the murder of its entire people at the hands of ISIS."

Muhandis said the PMU would remain to protect the Yazidis and hand over local control to Yazidi units affiliated with the PMU. Other Yazidis serve with
the Peshmerga and their area is now divided.

The dash for the border comes amid a final offensive in Mosul against ISIS, which has been confined to a few square kilometers in the old city. Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider Abadi, decked out in desert camouflage, flew to Mosul on Monday where he met with Muhandis and vows to oversee the final battle. He tweeted that he met with the Shi'ite militias, a stamp of approval for their role.

With Iran's influence now stretching from Tehran, via Baghdad to the Syrian border several analysts and reports have argued that Iran is forming a "Shi'ite
crescent" as part of a wider strategy to construct a corridor to the sea. In April, Kurdish experts I interviewed in Erbil sketched out a map and presented it, showing a line of Shi'ite villages and militia influence pointing past Sinjar to the border.

Fabrice Balanche, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote on May 26 there was "concern [this] reflects the broader regional contest that
the [Syria] war has become, with the [Syrian] regime racing to establish an east-west 'Shi'ite axis' from Iran to Lebanon."

The next move that can be expected from the Shi'ite militias is to strike south along the Iraqi border and clear ISIS toward Qaim and Al-Bukamal, which
could link them up with Syrian regime forces moving east from Damascus.

This is not a foregone conclusion as there are US-supported Syrian rebel groups on the Iraq-Syrian border near Jordan. But it's clearly a concern for
those in the region that oppose Iran.

Kurdistan24, a Kurdish news channel, reports that the PMU "has previously said it is ready to move inside Syrian territories to continue the fight against
[ISIS]."

That would be a security concern for Israel, because Hezbollah is present in Syria and uses Syria as a corridor for weapons transfers. Linking up with
Shi'ite militias in Iraq that have been compared to Hezbollah and openly show posters of Ayatollah Khamenei, poses a challenge to Jerusalem and the region.

 

Iran Accelerating Efforts To Capture Iraqi-Syrian Border From IS, Says Arab Intel Source

- Aaron Klein - http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/06/01/exclusive-iran-accelerating-efforts-capture-iraqi-syrian-border-says-arab-intel-source/ 

The Syrian army is accelerating its efforts to regain control of the border area between Syria and Iraq with the help of Iranian forces and elite Hezbollah units, an Arab intelligence source has told Breitbart Jerusalem.




The source said that even as the international coalition expects to liberate Raqqa with the help of Kurdish forces, the Syrian army and Iranian and Hezbollah fighters are taking action to liberate the area from IS control. According to the source, "Iran's main
fear is that the international coalition's capture of Raqqa led by the U.S. will disrupt Iran's strategic plans to complete the connection between Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus, which would secure the flow of arms from Iran to Syria and from there to Hezbollah
in Lebanon."



Over the past few weeks, according to the source, the Iranians, disregarding agreements with Russia, are stepping up their efforts on the Iraqi side of the border, using Shi'ite militas to lead the offensive against IS in Mosul and the border region with Syria.



"The Iranians want to make sure that their followers are directly involved in carrying out the plan," the source said. "As far as the Iranians are concerned, this plan is an entire outlook on the war in Syria and even the reason for the outbreak of the war
- that is, the attempt of Iran's enemies in the Arab world and internationally, the Iranians believe, to detach Syria from the Iranian axis politically by severing the territorial contiguity between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in order to harm Iranian interests
by harming Iran's allies."



The source noted that two offensives are taking place in the region at the same time: "A campaign initiated by the international coalition led by the U.S. and supported by Kurdish forces in the field, and a campaign led by the Iranians to take control of the
border area and ensure territorial contiguity."



According to the source, "The Russians' position isn't clear. On the one hand, they aren't supporting the move, but on the other hand they aren't doing anything to prevent it, even if it may lead to clashes between the international coalition led by the U.S.
and the Iranian-Syrian forces and Hezbollah."



In Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Afghanistan, said the source, the recruitment of volunteers and fighters for the battle to liberate Raqqa and the border area has accelerated.



Hundreds of fighters are arriving almost every day to military camps, especially in Iraq and also in Syria, in order to take part in this military offensive. American-Iranian proxy violence in this area is not another imaginary scenario because we're witnessing
that the Americans are accelerating the arming of Kurdish forces so that they will be the first to capture Raqqa and the border area with coalition air cover. In all issues concerning the Iranians, the key is in the hand of the Russians, but also the coalition
air force has in its hand the option of stopping the advancing Iranian-Syrian forces.



But at the moment, despite the commitment to stop an Iranian takeover, it's not clear if this commitment will translate into a war of American/Western forces against Iranian forces. What can be said: At the level of coordination between coalition members, there
is a clear intention to repel Iran and its efforts.

 

 

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