Earlier this week, in a somewhat bizarre, and wholly farcical, statement, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of military operations against US personnel (“occupation forces,” as the group calls the remnants of George W. Bush’s grand misadventure) in Iraq and Syria.
The group cited a desire to “prevent the embarrassment” of the Iraqi government, which is frequently compelled to decry violations of the country’s sovereignty. Just last month, for example, the US assassinated an Al-Nujaba commander in Baghdad and the IRGC bombed Erbil. Iraq’s still occupied by the US, but it’s also an Iranian client state. And, of course, it’s home to a semi-autonomous statelet. Suffice to say “sovereign” is a misnomer when it comes to Iraq post-Saddam.
In the same statement, Kataib Hezbollah, the most prominent of the Iran-allied militia who comprise the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a confederation of PMF groups loyal to the Quds, went out of its way to exculpate its benefactor in the attack that killed three US service members at a remote outpost in Jordan last month. “Our brothers in the Axis, especially in the Islamic Republic of Iran, do not know how we conduct our operations, and they often object to the pressure and escalation against the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria,” Kataib Hezbollah declared.
Although the Iraqi government would have you believe the statement was the result of Baghdad’s mediation efforts, the truth is simple: Tehran was concerned that the Biden administration, furious at the death of three Americans, might bomb targets inside Iran.
We’ll never know if Kataib Hezbollah’s impromptu olive branch spared the theocracy airstrikes on Iranian soil, but it was too little, too late to prevent retaliatory strikes against the militia in Iraq and Syria. “Actions speak louder than words,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said, of the group’s statement. “I don’t think we could be any more clear that we have called on the Iranian proxy groups to stop their attacks. They have not. And so we will respond.”
Fast forward 72 hours, give or take, and the US military unleashed dozens of strikes on Syria and Iraq targeting not just Kataib Hezbollah, but command and intelligence centers, weapons depots and bunkers used by, and associated with, the Quds. The US didn’t conduct any strikes inside Iran.
According to various accounts, Joe Biden dispatched B-1B bombers from Texas in an apparent effort to send a not-so-subtle message to Iran: The US can, at will, launch bombers from 6,000 miles away, refuel them in the sky, wreak all sorts of havoc and there isn’t anything anybody can, let alone will, do about it. The bombers were on their way (literally) when the remains of the three troops killed in Jordan last month were delivered to Dover Air Force Base, where Biden was waiting.
The US hit almost 90 targets with 125 precision munitions, officials said. And it’s not over yet. The Pentagon intends to assess the damage, then conduct follow-up strikes in the days ahead, reports suggested. Biden, in a statement, effectively confirmed as much. “Our response began today,” he said. “It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
Just hours before the US bombs started falling, Israel assassinated another IRGC operative in Syria, where Saeed Alidadi became the latest Guards advisor to meet his end in the country.
Earlier this week, Reuters, citing a handful of people familiar, said the IRGC is pulling its senior officers from Syria amid what the outlet aptly described as “one of the most bruising spells since [the Quds] arriv[ed] a decade ago to aid Bashar Assad in the [civil] war.”
Iranian state media this week quoted IRGC boss Hossein Salami (pictured above). “We hear threatening words from American officials,” he said. “We know each other — we will not leave any threat unanswered.”
