Israel planning to bomb Hashd Sha’abi ammunition depots in Iraq: Expert
A security expert close to Iraqi intelligence services says there is information that the Israeli military is planning to launch airstrikes against the arms depots of pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha'abi, in the Arab country.
“Available information suggests that Israel is preparing to bomb the weapons caches of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, and not the command centers or fortifications of the fighters. This is quite likely to happen,” Fadhil Abu Ragheef told Russia's RT Arabic television news network on Tuesday.
He added that a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on Monday evening, could be part of the Israeli scenario.
Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in the blast.
An unnamed source from Iraq’s Interior Ministry said an ammunition warehouse exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura.
The source added that the blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse that sent a large amount of shrapnel to nearby houses.
In January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted during a visit to Iraq that the Israeli regime could launch attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, who played a key role in the Iraqi army’s counter-terrorism battles against the Daesh terror group and helped the government to rid the country of the Takfiri outfit in late 2017.
Pompeo was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials at a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.
Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, RT Arabic service reported back then.
Reacting to the reports, Moein al-Kazemi, a Hashd commander, said the force was ready to deliver a “strong” response to any aggression, advising the regime in Tel Aviv not to “play with fire.”
The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting Daesh in Syria.
In June 2018, Hashd fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.
Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the US.
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