Iraq continues to fight jihadis in Iraq:
Iraq's security and paramilitary forces began Sunday a military operation along the border with Syria aimed at clearing the area of Islamic State group militants, the military said in a statement. ...
The military said the operation that began at sunrise was being carried out by Iraqi troops and members of the Popular Mobilization Forces that largely consist of Iran-backed militias.
Strategypage writes:
Iran is encountering more resistance in Iraq than expected. The Iraqis are openly hostile to Iranian influence and the Iranian attitude that they can do whatever they want in Iraq. What Iran wants right now it an Iraq too feeble to cause Iran any problems ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has a similar attitude and that, oddly enough, has Iran and ISIL often, unofficially and inadvertently, working together to keep Iraq chaotic and mired in violence and corruption. This produces an Iraqi government less able to resist. While Iran and ISIL seem like separate problems, they are, in practice, intertwined. The Iraqis are growing more aggressive in curbing the Iran backed PMF (Popular Mobilization Force) militias and are now starting to shut down the pro-Iran ones.
Yes, and back in the insurgency phase of Iraq War 1.0 from 2004 to 2008, Iran supported Shia gunmen while Iran's vassal state Syria funneled Sunni jihadi suicide bombers into Iraq to kill for al Qaeda. So the double threat has long been part of the plan to undermine Iraq.
Hopefully America and our coalition are still helping Iraq, unlike in 2012 when Iraq was left on their own only to see ISIL rise up beginning in January 2014.
Please note that Iraq is killing jihadis as a normal part of their security operations. Given how long Saddam Hussein plagued America and the region, it is far too easy to overlook this victory.
Note too that keeping the Iran-backed militias busy doing something of use (killing jihadis) prevents them from working against the Iraqi state, bleeds these guys, and exercises state control of them, which is needed if they are to be taken away from Iran which wants those militias as a Hezbollah-like Iranian proxy inside Iraq.
