Iran Using Hit Squads to Silence Critics of its Meddling in Iraq

Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Qassem Suleimani
Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Qassem Suleimani
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Iran Using Hit Squads to Silence Critics of its Meddling in Iraq

Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Qassem Suleimani
Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Qassem Suleimani

Tehran is using teams of hit squads in Iraq to silence critics of Iranian attempts to meddle in Iraq’s new cabinet, British security officials told The Daily Telegraph.

The hit squads are said to have been deployed on the orders of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with the aim of intimidating Iraqi opponents of Iranian meddling in Iraqi politics, the daily reported.

The hit squads were deployed after Iraqi general election in May, when Iranian attempts to establish a controlling influence over the new Iraqi government were stymied by the failure of Tehran-backed candidates to win sufficient votes, it said.

During the election campaign Iran backed former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose close association with Tehran was a major factor in his removal from office, said The Telegraph.

The Iranians also hedged their bets by supporting another pro-Iran candidate, Hadi al-Amiri, although neither candidate mustered enough votes to form a government, it added.

According to the newspaper, the most high-profile victim to date of the Iranian hit squads was Adel Shaker El-Tamimi - a close ally of former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi - who was assassinated by the Quds force in September.

A Shiite and joint Canadian-Iraqi national, Tamimi, 46, was involved in attempts in Baghdad to heal the schism between the country's Shiite and Sunni communities, and also worked as a low-key envoy to restore Iraq’s relations with neighboring Arab states.

Security sources told The Telegraph that the Iranian assassins have also targeted opponents across Iraq’s political spectrum.

Other victims of Iran's hit squads include Shawki al-Haddad, a close ally of Muqtada Al-Sadr, the report said.

Haddad was murdered in July after accusing the Iranians of election fraud. Meanwhile Rady al-Tai, an adviser to religious authority Ali Al-Sistani was the subject of a failed assassination attempt in August after he called for the reduction of Iranian influence in the new government.

"Iran in intensifying its campaign of intimidation against the Iraqi government by using assassination squads to silence critics of Tehran," a senior British security official told The Daily Telegraph.

"This is a blatant attempt to thwart efforts by the new Iraqi government to end Iran's meddling in Iraq."

Apart from sending hit squads to Iraq, security officials say the Quds Force is also seeking to consolidate its military position in the country.

Using established Shiite militias such as Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranians are smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against US and other Western targets, they say.

In September the militia was accused of launching two attacks against US targets - the US Embassy in Baghdad and the US consulate in Basra.



Russia Trying to Gain Foothold in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, Border Guard Says 

Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine March 6, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy region/Handout via Reuters) 
Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine March 6, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy region/Handout via Reuters) 
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Russia Trying to Gain Foothold in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, Border Guard Says 

Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine March 6, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy region/Handout via Reuters) 
Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine March 6, 2025. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy region/Handout via Reuters) 

Russian forces are attempting to create an active fighting zone in Ukraine's northeastern region of Sumy, across the border from Russia's Kursk region, Ukraine's border guard spokesman said on Monday.

Russian forces have stepped up their pressure on Ukrainian troops holding parts of Kursk seven months after a cross-border assault that Kyiv launched in part to gain a bargaining chip in possible peace negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy travels to Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia.

"We have recorded that in the direction of Novenke, the enemy is still trying to create a zone of active hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, trying to gain a foothold there," border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told Ukrainian national television.

"These are small assault groups, but such groups of several people are trying to enter our territory to accumulate and to later move deeper into the territory of Ukraine, including, most likely, to cut off logistical routes."

Border guards were repelling the attacks using artillery and other means to prevent accumulation of forces and any expansion of the zone of active hostilities, Demchenko said.

Ukraine's general staff said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had repelled 27 attacks Russian forces in the Kursk region over the past day.

The Russian defense ministry said on Sunday that its forces had recaptured three more settlements in the Kursk region, amid reports from experts and military bloggers that Ukrainian forces faced the threat of encirclement and supply line challenges.