Kata'ib Hezbollah

Um, there were some reports that the Iraqis were worried that there were gonna be penetrations of their airspace.

And now there's a report, and this is, so forgive me, this is from Kata'ib Hezbollah, so I know this is a biased source.

But it, it aligns with some of what I was watching on FlightRadar, where there was a massive movement of US military aircraft from Jordan and Israel, and they apparently, with the Israelis, um, conducted massive sorties above Iraqi airspace.

These included fighter jets, Reaper drones, five KC-135 Stratotankers.

And there's still, in Iraq, there's still all of these, um, Iranian-backed militias or affiliated militias.

Yeah.

Um, you know, and there was, there was some talk also that, that if the US did get involved for the Saudis, they might not hit the Houthis directly, they might target Kata'ib Hezbollah and some of these other groups in, i- in, in Iraq.

Yeah.

So Omar, I wanna come to you because one of the visuals that has circulated, uh, I think in American social media circles, to some extent American media, have been some sort of striking images about, uh, of examples being like the, some members of the Popular Mobilization Forces driving trucks over the American flag.

Uh, statements by, uh, I think the Secretary General of Kata'ib Hezbollah saying essentially that this was, uh, uh, around the resistance has won, something to that effect.

Obviously, that is a perspective in a part among a segment of Iraqis that have long been openly hostile to the U.S. military presence.

Talk to us about the broader views towards that U.S. military presence and the fact of its ending am- among Iraqis.

He had this, uh, warrior, revolutionary charisma.

And, uh, he was seen for a lot of the units, despite all of the research on, again, like, him being, uh, the stronger protector for the interest of Kata'ib Hezbollah factions within the PMF.

Um, despite that, he was regarded by many as, as a godfather, in a way.

He had, uh, he had this authority among a lot of the factions.

Um, so there's a lot of interesting news happening now, as you know, in the Middle East in the last 12 hours alone.

And it looks a hell of a lot like the Israelis are getting ready to execute some kind of strike, either against Iran directly or against one of their partners, either Hezbollah or the Iraqi militias that Iran backs, like Kata'ib Hezbollah.

The point is, there's something in the offing, and we know this because Israel Hayom is reporting it, and of course, that's Miriam Adelson's paper, which means it's not just news.

This is probably insight into what Netanyahu's team are thinking.

Um, and-

Well, HAYI, that you mentioned, Andy, was actually run by a Kata'ib Hezbollah operative out of Iraq, and this became known through a US indictment after we arrested him in Turkey with the cooperation of MIT, which is Turkey's intelligence entity, who handed him over to us.

All those, uh, many of those operations, not all of them, many of those operations were led by a Kata'ib Hezbollah handler on orders from the IRGC to do those things in the UK.

And it was, it was pretty elaborate actually, a very interesting case study on, on a third, third party handler doing this for the IRGC to create even more depth for deniability, but still being controlled and, and, and ordered by the IRGC.

Now that that individual's gone, which I believe was around May timeframe, they've probably had to find new individuals to replace that guy, because that guy was doing a pretty good job of coordinating from, from Iraq, from a distance, and now they need to replace that handling with somebody else, and I think that's the result of what we're probably seeing now.

... right? Because of who they were, they brought with them air defense.

And by the way, um, I, I was reading that the, the Kurds, that, that Kurdish area, the, the, we used to call it the arc, right, of northern Iraq, has, ha- has taken, um, uh, over 1,000 drone and missile attacks since the war began, not covered by the media, right? A lot of those coming from the, uh, the, the militias.

Um, Kata'ib Hezbollah is publicly celebrating withdrawal of US forces, calling it the beginning of full sovereignty, right? Which is ironic, because Kata'ib Hezbollah is, of course, Iranian-backed.

And the fact that the deadline that he had set has already been passed, and he's now pushed the deadline to the middle of next year, and, you know, I think he's starting to realize this is a lot harder than just, you know, making a speech.

These groups, especially the, the, the armed groups that are most loyal to Iran, such as Kata'ib Hezbollah or Al-Mujaba and others, these groups are part of a war right now.

They are part of Iran's regional war, just like we talked about the Houthis on one front.

This is-- Iraq is another front of Iran's response and its war against, uh, the U.S. and Israel.

Some of these groups are actually in the Iraqi government and don't want to fight.

Those that are in the Iraqi government are saying, "Actually, we shouldn't be fighting this war because it's not good for Iraq.

Let's, let's, let's focus on stability." So the, those who are willing to fight, you know, as I mentioned, Kata'ib Hezbollah and others, those very close to Iran, they have some capabilities.

They could launch some attacks, but they're nowhere near the type of force that like the Houthis are.