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Iran's Militias Are Taking Over Iraq's Army
(Bloomberg) Eli Lake - Hadi al-Amiri, the founder and leader of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia, the Badr Brigade, told me that U.S. ambassador Stuart Jones recently offered air strikes to support the Iraqi army and militia ground forces under his command. This has placed the U.S. in the strange position of deepening an alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran for its war against Islamic extremists. While official U.S. policy is to support the integration of Iraq's sectarian militias into the Iraqi Security Forces, in Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi army is integrating into the Shiite militias. Amiri said he meets with the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, whenever he is in Baghdad. "He advises us. He offers us information, we respect him very much," he said. He added that Lebanon's Hizbullah has also provided the Badr Brigade with important lessons learned from fighting Israel. Michael Flynn, a retired special operations general who until last year was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said, "Members of the Badr Corps are responsible for killing many American soldiers and they will likely do it again if given the chance."