Iran-linked Iraqi militias say truce with US is over

Decision follows air strike on militia base that killed four fighters last month and rocket attack on airbase housing US troops

Members of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces attend the funeral of colleagues killed in an air strike in southern Baghdad on July 31. The PMF held US forces responsible for the attack. EPA

Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq are ending the truce that was meant to give the Iraqi government time to negotiate the withdrawal of US troops from the country, a high-ranking member of one of the groups told The National.

“The resistance factions in Iraq ended this truce and therefore all options are available to the resistance forces to target all US bases inside Iraq,” Haider Al Lami, a member of the political council of Al Nujaba Movement in Iraq, said.

Mr Al Lami said there was “procrastination and stalling” from the American side during talks with the Iraqi government on the withdrawal of troops.

Calls for an end to the truce were raised after at least four members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces's 47th Brigade were killed in a US strike on a base in Babil province, south of Baghdad, on July 30.

The PMF, an umbrella term for groups of armed fighters that are officially part of the Iraqi security forces, confirmed members of its 47th Brigade had been killed in an attack carried out “by missiles fired from drones”.

The brigade belongs to Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most fiercely anti-US groups within the PMF.

Less than a week later, rockets hit the Ain Al Asad airbase in western Iraq which houses US troops, injuring at least five American personnel, in an attack claimed by a group called The Revolutionaries.

Mr Al Lami confirmed that the group was part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an alliance that has claimed a number of attacks on US personnel and assets in Iraq since Israel launched its war in Gaza last year.

“There will be a response in the coming days that could target more than one place, not necessarily in Iraq, Syria and the Zionist entity [Israel],” said Mr Lami, who had warned after the Babil strike that such a move was being considered.

Meanwhile, the US said that conversations in the higher military commission continue.

"Our relationship with Iraq is a strong one," Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Pat Ryder told reporters.

"We're there at the invitation of the government of Iraq, and we'll continue to have the discussions through the higher military commission and through our US-Iraq joint security co-operation dialogue, to look at not only what the future of the coalition is, but also what our longer-term US-Iraq bilateral security relationship will be.

"As Secretary [Lloyd] Austin has said many times, we're not going to tolerate attacks on our forces, and we will always respond appropriately in a time and manner of our choosing."

Fears of regional war

The unofficial truce, revealed by The National in March, comes to an end amid heightened fears of a regional war following Israel's killing of a senior commander of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in Beirut and the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July. Iran blames Israel for the assassination and has vowed to respond.

“The Islamic Resistance in Iraq gave space to the political and diplomatic side, even though the resistance knew that these diplomatic and political means were insufficient against an arrogant American enemy that understands only the language of force,” Mr Al Lami said.

A senior Iraqi army official said he was wary of announcements or threats by the armed groups to end the truce, and that this would not necessarily lead to a significant increase in attacks.

Announcing the end of the truce “is a way of pressuring the US in front of the world”, said the official.

In 2003, the US led an international coalition to invade Iraq under the false pretext that it was developing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found, and the invasion plunged Iraq into chaos, and led to one of the bloodiest insurgencies, as well as decades of political and security instability.

In 2008, Baghdad and Washington signed the Strategic Framework Agreement that led to the withdrawal of most US forces by the end of 2011, leaving behind a small number of troops to protect its embassy and to train and assist Iraqi forces. That agreement also shapes the relations and co-operation in other fields.

But foreign combat troops returned in 2014 in a US-led international coalition, when ISIS seized about a third of the country as the American-trained Iraqi security forces were unable to stop the extremist group.

After the defeat of ISIS in Iraq by the end of 2017, the US started to reduce the number of its troops in the country – from about 5,000 to 2,500 now – along with other countries from the international coalition.

Since 2018, Iran-backed Shiite militias and political parties have been demanding the full withdrawal of US troops. Sunni and Kurdish parties do not support that demand because they are concerned the troops' departure could lead to a power vacuum.

Agreement 'almost finished'

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani's government initiated in January talks with US to end the coalition's mission. Baghdad said it was willing to enter bilateral security agreements with individual member states.

In late July, an Iraqi delegation led by Defence Minister Thabet Al Abbasi visited Washington to put the final touches to the deal.

Baghdad and Washington were set to announce the agreement early this month, but this was postponed after the Ain Al Asad attack, a senior government official told The National.

“We almost finished everything, and the announcement was about to happen, but Ain Al Asad attack happened,” he said. “So, it was hard to announce the agreement immediately as if this announcement was made because of the strike.”

He said the agreement would be announced “very soon”.

Under the agreement, the US-led coalition would begin withdrawing from their bases in Baghdad and Anbar in September, and would formally end their mission by September next year, he said.

Some troops would remain in Iraq's Kurdistan Region until September 2026 to oversee the anti-terrorism operations in Syria.

“Fighting terrorism in Syria is different from fighting terrorism in Iraq. Daesh is stronger in Syria and has strongholds,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said negotiations were still in progress, but any announcement would be delayed due to the situation in the region and the US presidential election.

“The discussions are continuing at the level of military leadership and they have not been cancelled, but there are special circumstances,” Mr Hussein said in an interview to Al Hadath satellite channel aired on Tuesday night.

“First, we are talking about a state of tension in the region – and sometimes we are talking about an imminent war, and second, the situation in the US and the elections in November,” he said.

Lizzie Porter contributed from Istanbul