US reconnaissance aircraft have flown over the positions of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) across the country, an Iraqi security source says. RNA - The unnamed Iraqi source was quoted by Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency that US aircraft conducted sorties over locations close to the small town of Jurf al-Nasr, about 60 kilometers southwest of Baghdad.
Reconnaissance aircraft also flew over PMU positions in Razzaza region, which is located a few miles west of the city of Karbala, the source said, adding that the reconnaissance operations were not limited to those areas and that US aircraft also spied on PMU positions in the western province of Anbar.
On March 27, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had ordered a secret directive, which called on US military commanders to prepare a campaign against Kata'ib Hezbollah, which is part of the PMU.
Later on, the United States’ top commander in Iraq warned that such a campaign could be bloody and counterproductive.
Lieutenant General Robert P. White wrote in a blunt memo that a new campaign would also require that thousands more American troops be sent to Iraq and divert resources from the so-called fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters have played a major role in the liberation of Daesh-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.
In November 2016, the Iraqi parliament voted to integrate the PMU, which was formed shortly after the emergence of Daesh in Iraq in 2014, into the military.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.
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