DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n January 3 the U.S. assassinated the Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani and the deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al Muhandis near the airport of Baghdad. In response to the infraction of Iraq's sovereignty the parliament voted to evict all U.S. and coalition forces from Iraq. The U.S. rejected the request to leave.
On March 11, the birthday of Qassem Suleimani, unknown guerilla fired 18 Katyusha rockets against a joint base at Camp Taji, about 17 miles north of Baghdad. Two U.S. and one British soldiers were killed by the strike and twelve others were wounded.
Only hours later the U.S., or one of its allies, responded by striking ten targets near Bukamal with drones. Bukamal is a border crossing where Iraqi units aligned with Iran are guarding the Syrian-Iraqi border. While some sources claimed that 18 people were killed in those strikes others denied that there were any casualties.
Last night the U.S. hit five additional targets in Iraq.
It claimed that these airstrikes were aimed at Khatib Hizbullah, one of the PMU units that is supported by Iran. It said it 'believes' that Khatib Hizbullah was responsible for the rocket attack. But neither the targets nor the casualty list is not consistent with that claim. Three soldiers of the 19th Commando Division of the Iraqi army were killed and four more wounded. Two men from the Iraqi Federal Police were killed and two more wounded. Five Khatib Hizbullah members were also wounded.
US led coalition airplanes over Syria-Iraq border: always up to no good.
One of the targets was a former military airport near Karbala which is one of the Shiite holy pilgrimage cities. The airport is supposed to become a civilian one and is currently under renovation. Its main building is now destroyed (vid). One civil worker sleeping at the site was allegedly killed as were two soldiers who were guarding the place.
The U.S. either has no information where Khatib Hizbullah units really. are, or it is intentionally targeting sites and units that will further inflame Iraq's Shia majority:
Another Iran-backed militia, Harakat al-Nujaba, accused the United States of hitting militia and Iraqi army headquarters, as well as a civilian airport. In a statement early Friday, it said that further strikes could prompt retaliation involving an “eye for an eye.”
The group did not elaborate on what that might be, and it was not immediately possible to confirm the U.S. statements that the strikes had only targeted militia facilities, or the militia claim that a civilian-related location had been struck.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani condemned the attack.
The 'western' media depict this war as if it were between Iran and the United States. But the U.S. troops involved are in Iraq without the consent of the Iraqi government. They are occupiers against whom resistance is legitimate. They are bombing official Iraqi government troops on Iraqi ground.
That is at least how the majority of Iraqis see it and that is why they will respond until the U.S. has left their country.
Why the U.S. is doing in Iraq what it now does is beyond me.
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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