Hashed al-Shaabi: Iraq militias hit by US-Saudi strikes

The United States and Saudi Arabia struck positions belonging to Hashed al-Shaabi in Iraq on Wednesday, targeting an armed alliance that includes powerful pro-Iran groups.

Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, is a network of Shia-majority factions established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group. It was formed after a fatwa from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s highest Shia religious authority, as IS was taking large areas of the country.

A 2016 law integrated the Hashed into Iraq’s regular security forces. The alliance later contributed to the defeat of IS by the Iraqi army, which was supported by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition.

The alliance now includes dozens of groups, including brigades belonging to pro-Iran armed factions that the United States blacklists as terrorist organisations. Several are also part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq alliance, which has claimed hundreds of attacks against US facilities in Iraq and the region during the Middle East war.

Kataeb Hezbollah, Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada and the al-Nujaba movement are among the groups named as part of this pro-Iran network. Some of these groups are present on Hashed al-Shaabi bases, while also maintaining their own bases, arms depots and workshops.

Fox News reported that US President Donald Trump said the US-Saudi bombing inside Iraq had been coordinated with the Iraqi government. Iraq’s presidency denounced the attacks as a “blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”