By Anas al-Bar | 2024-02-01

The recent US strikes on the sites of Iran-backed Iraqi militias in Jurf al-Sakhr have shone the light once again on the control the militias exert over the town, which they have turned into a "closed-access military base."

The United States on January 23 carried out precision air strikes against three facilities used by Kataib Hizbullah and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

The US strikes hit Kataib Hizbullah "headquarters, storage and training locations for rocket, missile and one-way attack UAV (drone) capabilities" in the Jurf al-Sakhr area, south of Baghdad, as well as in al-Qaim on the border with Syria.

They came "in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias," said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Kataib Hizbullah and other Iran-backed militias have established military bases in the Jurf al-Sakhr area from which they launch attacks on coalition forces.

Weapons, missiles and drones are manufactured there under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), experts say.

On January 22, several drones targeted the Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province, causing injuries among US troops and damage to infrastructure, AFP reported.

The same base was targeted by at least a dozen missiles two days earlier, causing injuries among Iraqi and US service members housed at the base.

US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted in more than 160 attacks since mid-October, many of them claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked groups.

Under tight militia control

Jurf al-Sakhr, an agricultural town 60km southwest of Baghdad, has been under Kataib Hizbullah's control for close to a decade -- since its liberation by Iraqi forces from the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) in 2014.

The militia later changed its name to Jurf al-Nasr and closed access to it completely, turning it into a big military base and ammunition depot.

Kataib Hizbullah has prevented the vast majority of the town's 100,000 displaced residents from returning on the pretext that the area has not been cleared of remnants of war, saying that the militias are there to "maintain security" and to "stop the return of extremist elements."

Those who have managed to return say the town is a powder keg because of the ammunition, rockets and missiles haphazardly stored there.

"Jurf al-Sakhr is no longer a civilian center but rather a secret and closed camp that is fully under Kataib Hizbullah's control," Ghazi Faisal Hussein, director of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, told Al-Fassel.

The town also has a "military college" to train militia members, as well as arms depots for medium and large weapons, and workshops for the manufacture and maintenance of drones and missiles, whose parts are smuggled from Iran, he said.

IRGC commanders in Jurf al-Sakhr supervise the manufacturing of weapons and military training activities, he added.

At least 20 military bases for Kataib Hizbullah and other Iran-backed militias exist in the town, according to various reports. Most of these bases used to be government buildings, factories or schools.

The militias have turned a number of the buildings into "secret detention centers," where they keep arrested opponents and torture them, reports say.

Harming Iraq's interests

According to several sources, Jurf al-Sakhr contains mass graves where forcibly disappeared residents were buried during the battle with ISIS.

Iran-affiliated militants also exploit the town's orchards, fish farms and other resources to replenish their own coffers.

The danger of Kataib Hizbullah's "military base" in Jurf al-Sakhr "was clearly evident after it was used as a launch pad for multiple attacks on bases that host international coalition advisors in Iraq and Syria," Hussein said.

The militias are "a parallel entity" that harms the state with its illegal weapons and activities, Hussein said, adding that they do not respect Iraqi authorities, the national interest, or the agreements signed with the international coalition for combating terrorism.

"With these aggressive behaviors, [the militias] threaten the lives of Iraqis and push Iraq to the brink of the abyss in service of Iran's Wilayat al-Faqih" (Guardianship of the Jurist) doctrine, he said.

Wilayat al-Faqih calls for allegiance to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.

Military expert Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jaleel Khalaf said Iraqi soldiers were among those injured in the January 20 attack on Ain al-Asad air base.

Attacks have also targeted Iraqi military bases and Baghdad-based diplomatic missions, endangering the lives and safety of civilians, he told Al-Fassel, stressing that this was "unacceptable."

"The [Iran-aligned] armed groups must consider the national interest of Iraq, not Iran, and be aware that encroaching on the security and stability of the country and dragging it into the abyss do not serve the Iraqi people," he said.