Iraqi militias halt attacks on US forces at Iran’s request

Reuters reported, citing multiple Iranian and Iraqi sources, that Iraqi armed groups aligned with the Islamic Republic, at the request of Ismail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have halted their attacks against American forces in Iraq.

According to Reuters, Ismail Qaani met with representatives of several armed groups at the airport in Iraq. This meeting took place less than 48 hours after Washington blamed Iraqi armed groups for the killing of three American soldiers at a military base in Erbil.

Reuters wrote that this move indicates that the Islamic Republic of Iran seeks to prevent further escalation in the region.

In comparison to more than twenty attacks in the two weeks preceding Qaani’s visit, no attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria have occurred from February 4 until now.

The senior commander of one of the Iraqi armed groups supported by the Islamic Republic told Reuters, “Without Qaani’s direct intervention, persuading Kataib Hezbollah to cease military attacks to reduce tension was impossible.”

Following the killing of three American soldiers in an attack by Iraqi paramilitaries in Erbil, pressures on the Biden administration to give a decisive response to Iran increased. Particularly, Republican lawmakers in Congress had called for American strikes on Iranian military and oil facilities.

They stated that without a firm response from Washington against Tehran, paramilitaries of the Islamic Republic would not cease their attacks against American military personnel in the Middle East.

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