Iranians made tremendous sacrifices in fight against ISIL

Hadi al-Ameri, who is also the secretary general of Iraq’s Badr Organization, made the remarks on Friday as he addressed a tribal gathering in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar.

He said the “Iranian brethren” played a “significant role” in protecting Iraq against the Daesh terrorist group.

The senior Iraqi legislator further said that Iranians made enormous sacrifices in this regard, and top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the US military in Iraq in 2020, had the leading role.

“Enemies believed that Iraq would be overrun in the wake of Daesh’s terror campaign, but it was the fatwa (religious edict) by Iraq’s top religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, urging Iraqis to take up arms against the terrorists, that foiled the conspiracy.

“Thanks to the fatwa, Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, were formed. This fostered cooperation and coordination among all Iraqi armed forces and put an end to sectarianism in Iraq,” Ameri said.

Daesh began a campaign of terror in the Arab country in 2014 and took control of vast swathes in lightning attacks across the region.

Iraq declared victory over the terrorist group in December 2017 after a three-year counter-terrorism military campaign, in which Hashd al-Sha’abi also played a major role.

However, Daesh’s remnants keep staging sporadic attacks across Iraq, attempting to regroup and unleash fresh violence in the Arab country.

The Takfiri terrorist group has managed to intensify its attacks in Iraq, particularly since January 2020, when the United States assassinated General Soleimani and PMU’s deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.

Anti-US sentiments sharply increased in Iraq in the aftermath of the assassination, prompting Iraqi lawmakers to pass a bill – only two days after the assassination – that required the Baghdad government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by Washington.

The US was finally forced to end its “combat mission” in Iraq by the end of 2021, but Iraqi resistance groups say the Pentagon’s so-called advisory role must also end.