Senior MP:

US Trying to Prevent Hashd Al-Shaabi's Approach to Iraq's Western Borders

A senior Iraqi lawmaker disclosed that the US Army troops and warplanes are preventing Hashd al-Shaabi (Iraq's popular forces) from getting close to the country's borders with Syria.

News ID: 443756

Date: 05 March 2019 - 14:56

RNA - "The US troops stationed along Iraq-Syria borders have blocked the access of Hashd al-Shaabi forces from nearing that region through air and ground cover," Member of the Iraqi Parliament's Security Committee Ali Jabbar was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website as saying.

He underlined that the US considers Hashd al-Shaabi as a big threat to its plots in Iraq, and said that the US Army troops are exerting pressure on the Iraqi government to prevent Hashd al-Shaabi from getting close to the border with Syria or to prevent them from targeting the ISIL movements in the Baghouz region.

This comes as a security force had earlier revealed that the US Army troops backed by the US helicopters have used al-Ramaneh region along Iraq-Syria borders in Western al-Anbar to conduct reconnaissance operations.

In a relevant development in mid-February, media reports said that the US Army troops stationed in al-Anbar were plotting to prevent Hashd al-Shaabi forces from getting close to the country's Western provinces.

"The US troops in Ain al-Assad are looking for a way to drive out Hashd al-Shaabi forces from Western Iraqi provinces, including al-Anbar province," the Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website quoted Jabbar as saying.

He reiterated that the US plot for driving Hashd al-Shaabi forces from bases and regions under their control in al-Anbar, Nineveh and Salaheddin is while the US troops are worried about their confrontation with Hashd al-Shaabi and people's uprising against the illegal presence of the US Army troops in Iraq.

Jabbar also pointed to the US efforts to prolong its presence in Iraq, and disclosed that the US troops are trying to win the support of Iraq's tribal leaders and some of their senior commanders in Western provinces in a bid to set up new military bases and station their mercenaries in them.

In a relevant development last month, Iraqi security experts accused the US of preparing a plan to use mercenaries other than the ISIL terrorists against the Arab country's security forces and Hashd al-Shaabi in the Western parts of Iraq.

The Arabic-language website of al-Maloumeh quoted Kazim al-Haaj, an Iraqi security expert, as saying that the US is plotting to hire mercenaries other than the ISIL to implement its plots in Iraq.

He added that the US plans to use a number of Iraqi mercenaries against the security forces and Hashd al-Shaabi as well as a number of figures in Western Iraq and Nineveh, noting that the Iraqi nation's opposition to the US military deployment in Iraq has made Washington use other mercenaries than the ISIL.

Al-Haaj said that since the US is not able to directly confront Hashd al-Shaabi and the Islamic resistance forces, it is seeking other tools to foment insecurity and target a number of national figures in the Western provinces and Nineveh.

In relevant remarks in early February, a senior Syrian military expert described US President Donald Trump's declared policy of Syria pullout as a deceitful move, saying that Washington is setting the stage for the rise of a new generation of ISIL terrorists in the region.

According to Fars News Agancy, General Mohammad Abbas told the Arabic-language Sputnik news agency that the US remarks on evacuation of forces from Syria is nothing but political maneuvering and a scenario to implement its plots to destroy the region.

He added that the US intends to derail public attention from its plots to pave the ground for the creation of a new generation of the ISIL terrorists to create a pretext for its military intervention in Syria and the region, noting that Trump's only goal is breaking the Syrian nation and government's resistance.

General Abbas said that despite its claims of fighting terrorism, the US uses terrorists like the ISIL and Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) to materialize its plots in Syria.

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