The pro-Iranian Popular Mobilization factions in Iraq failed to reach a consensus on the military response to the US air raid that targeted the headquarters of a faction on the Iraqi-Syrian border last week.
The leaders of the factions held successive meetings to discuss the timing of the response, without reaching an agreement, as some parties warned against “delicate and difficult calculations” that might open the door to “more severe” US strikes.
However, high-ranking sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings witnessed sharp differences between leaders, who wanted a quick and strong strike, and others who called for the need to study the dangerous repercussions of a continued confrontation, noting that the US strike increased the division and confusion among the factions.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a leader in the Al-Fateh Alliance said that the division of the leaders was focused on two main points.
Some saw that ignoring the US raid would weaken the factions’ influence vis-à-vis the Iraqi government, while others cautioned that any response would mean that the next blow of the Biden administration would be inevitably fatal.
The leader claims that a number of faction senior members “have new security data regarding the nature of the US moves, which gives the impression that Washington’s concessions with Iran do not mean the cessation of military strikes against its interests in Iraq, especially against the Popular Mobilization camps.”
On Monday, the US Department of Defense said that the strikes it had carried out were necessary and deliberate against Iranian-backed factions, in response to drone attacks, noting that the targeted camps were used by Kataeb Hezbollah and Sayyid al-Shuhada.
