nije..
nego je u medjuvremenu u drzavi u kojoj zivi... zakonom zabranjeno javno propagirati bilo kakav vid terorizma..pa cak i u obliku obicne podrske zvjerstvima koja cine...teroristi...

U borbi protiv džihadista Amerika se uzda u Iran

Američki ratni planeri pažljivo prate iranski paralelni rat sa Islamskom državom, preko raznih kanala komunikacija, radio frekvencija, navodi Njujork tajms

danas

Vašington - - U vreme kada je američki predsednik Barak Obama pod jakim pritiskom republikanskog Kongresa povodom pregovora o obuzdavanju nuklearnih ambicija Irana, pojavljuje se zapanjujući paradoks: Obama se sve više uzda u iranske borce dok pokušava da se obračuna sa ekstremistima Islamske države u Iraku i Siriji bez angažovanja kopnenih trupa Amerike, piše Njujork tajms.

Za četiri dana od kada su se iranske trupe pridružile borbi 30.000 iračkih vojnika u pokušaju da povrate Tikrit, rodni grad Sadama Huseina, od Islamske države, američki zvaničnici su izjavili da SAD nisu u koordinaciji sa Iranom u borbi protiv zajedničkog neprijatelja.

To može biti tehnički tačno, tvrde analitičari. Ali američki ratni planeri pažljivo prate iranski paralelni rat sa Islamskom državom, preko raznih kanala komunikacija, radio frekvencija, navodi američki dnevnik. Mnogi stručnjaci za nacionalnu bezbednost kažu da iransko učešće pomaže Iračanima da održe liniju protiv napredovanja Islamske države dok američki vojni savetnici ne završe obuku iračkih snaga. "Jedini način na koji Obamina administracija može verodostojno da izgura svoju strategiju jeste ako se implicitno pretpostavi da će Iranci nositi najveću težinu i osvojiti bitku na kopnu", kaže Vali Nasr, bivši specijalni savetnik Obame, u razgovoru za Njujork tajms.

"Američka strategija u Iraku do sada je bila uspešna uglavnom zahvaljujući Iranu", dodaje Nasr. Iran je avgusta prošle godine organizovao iračku šiitsku miliciju da razbije opsadu Amerlija, sela koje su zaposeli džihadisti, a čiji su šiitski stanovnici bili žrtve pokolja. SAD su pružale podršku iz vazduha.

I u Tikritu ove nedelje, lideri šiitske milicije koju podržava Iran saopštili su da njihovi borci čine dve trećine od 30.000 provladinih snaga. Takođe su kazali da im je iranski general Kasim Sulejmani pomogao da se približe liniji fronta. Angažman Sulejmanija, kritikovane ličnosti u američkim bezbednosnim i vojnim krugovima jer je jednom, kako navode, režirao krvavu kampanju protiv američkih snaga u Iraku, otežava SAD da izvede vazdušne napade kao pomoć operaciji u Tikritu, smatraju spoljnopolitički stručnjaci.

"Jednostavno nema načina da američka vojska aktivno podrži ofanzivu koju predvodi Sulejmani", smatra Kristofer Harmer, bivši avijatičar u američkoj mornarici u Persijskom zalivu. "On je svečanija verzija Osame bin Ladena", dodaje on, prenosi Njujork tajms. Ipak, strategiji SAD u Iraku, saglasni su upućeni, može da koriste iranski napori da se povrati Tikrit od Islamske države, čak iako ne učestvuju u tome direktno.

Kasim Sulejmani predvodi napad na Tikrit


Iranian Military Mastermind Leading Battle to Recapture Tikrit From ISIS

By Jack Moore 3/5/15 at 10:26 AM,Newsweek



Major General Qasem Soleimani, the former leader of the special operations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), pictured in a white scarf with Kurdish forces in Iraq last year. Twitter


A notorious Iranian commander is spearheading the Iraqi offensive on the ISIS-held city of Tikrit, providing tactical expertise and a key link to Tehran for supplies to the Iraqi militias advancing on the terror group’s territory.

This week, a combination of 30,000 Iraqi security forces, Sunni and Shia militiamen launched a campaign to retake the Sunni-majority city, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, from the terror group after it swept through northern Iraq last summer. Iraqi security forces, backed by the majority-Shia Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), are advancing on the city from three directions, north, east and south, where the main entry points into and out of the city lie.

Major General Qasem Soleimani, the shadowy former leader of the elite Quds Force, the special operations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), is directly overseeing the eastern offensive on Tikrit. The Iranian general has been pictured on the outskirts of the city in photos shared widely on social media.

The city is situated on the Tigris River, approximately 95 miles (150 kilometres) north of the capital Baghdad, and would provide Iraqi forces a strategic launchpad from which to attack ISIS-held Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, further to the north.

However, it is the presence of Soleimani that reveals the influence of Iran in the fight against ISIS, says Jordan Perry, principal MENA analyst at leading global risk analytics company Verisk Maplecroft.

“It is clear that Iran is spearheading the ground offensives against the Islamic State and Soleimani, in particular, has played a leading role from the very start,” he notes. “He has increasingly come to the fore and become a poster boy for the Iranian intervention in Iraq.”



While western nations, including the U.S., were slow to react to ISIS’s march across northern Iraq, Soleimani was quick to play a more public role in Tehran’s efforts to tackle the terror group. For example, the commander was seen in pictures with militamen in the northern Iraqi town of Amerli when it was recaptured from ISIS last September. Last November, one of Iraq’s leading Shia politicians, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Newsweek that Soleimani maintains a frequent presence in Iraq. “He is here often in Baghdad, and Northern Iraq,” the official said.

“Of course the Iraqi government knows about this. He is smart. He is also a man who loves war. He knows he is good at it.”

Top U.S. general Martin Dempsey has said that the involvement of Iran in the fight against ISIS in Iraq could be a positive step, as long as the situation does not descend into sectarianism, because of fears surrounding how Shia militias may treat the remaining Sunni population of Tikrit if it is recaptured. The military chief also claimed that almost two thirds of the 30,000 offensive were Iranian-backed militiamen, meaning that without Iranian assistance and Soleimani’s guidance, the offensive on Tikrit may not have been possible.

“Without the financial and military backing of Iran, it would be extremely difficult for Iraq to launch a successful offensive on Tikrit, and, further up the Tigris, Mosul as well,” adds Perry.

Sajad Jiyad, Iraq expert and director of research at independent consultancy Integrity, believes that Soleimani is playing such an integral role in coordinating the offensive against ISIS as he brings a vast wealth of experience and provides a key link to Tehran for material support.

“He is good at asymmetric, unconventional warfare, so parts where you have to operate in cities and dense urban areas,” says Jiyad. “Where you have to deal with snipers, when you have to deal with the unconventional nature of fighting a group like ISIS, he’s got that experience.”



Qasem Soleimani Qasem Soleimani's name has become synonymous with the handful of victories attributed to Iraqi ground forces Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/AP

“He also has his ability to coordinate directly with Tehran. He has the authority to present Iranian support immediately, that’s probably the most important thing he is offering.”

Tikrit was the site of mass executions of Iraqi forces by ISIS militants at the time of its capture last June. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report claimed that approximately 770 captured soldiers were killed after the terror group took control of former U.S. military base in the city, Camp Speicher, in executions which HRW advisor Fred Abrahams described as “crimes against humanity”.

Iran has a crucial stake in the Salah ad-Din province where Tikrit is situated because of the city of Samarra, which contains the Imam al-Askari shrine, one of the most important holy sites in the world for Shia Muslims.

30 000 boraca iranske Hašd al Šabi paravojske i iračkih snaga vode napad na Tikrit,Amerikanci na udaru petromonarhija,general Martin Dempsi ide u zaliv da ih smiri

guardian

The large-scale offensive launched last week by Iraqi security forces and allied Shia Muslim militias against Islamic State (Isis) terrorists in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, is, on the face of it, a welcome development. The operation, the biggest of its kind since swaths of central and northern Iraq were overrun last summer, marks a coming of age for the country’s new government and prime minister, Haider al-Abadi. At the very least, it has forced Isis on to the defensive.



The US and Britain, pursuing their own limited air campaigns against Isis, have been urging Iraqi leaders to stand up to the extremist Sunni Muslim group. After several false starts, they now appear to be doing so. “This was put together by the Iraqis, formulated by the Iraqis, executed by the Iraqis, and that’s the best thing all of us could, frankly, ask for,” said John Kerry, the US secretary of state. “So we take it the way it is and we’ll hope for the best results.”

As so often in the Middle East, Kerry may be sadly disappointed. One reason is that the offensive, targeted principally at the strategic city of Tikrit, quickly ground to a halt around the eastern towns of al-Alam and al-Dour after Isis, unsurprisingly, hit back with roadside booby traps and suicide bombers. Although Iraqi officials expressed confidence that Tikrit would fall soon, it is clear they face an extended hit-and-run battle for every house, street and town. This does not bode well for the bigger challenge to come – the reconquest of Iraq’s second city, Mosul.

Kerry’s cheery prognosis is also undermined by the devastating impact of the fighting on the mostly Sunni population of Salahuddin. Claims that Tikrit emptied after the Isis takeover are misleading. Thousands of less well-off civilians remain there, trapped between advancing, predominantly Shia forces and Isis fanatics who threaten to use them as human shields.



The Sunnis’ plight is exacerbated by well-founded fears that they may be victimised by the Shia militiamen who comprise about two-thirds of the 30,000-strong Iraqi force. Abadi has called for discipline and restraint. But Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, is the symbolic seat of Sunni power. Sunnis fear that Shia elements may seek revenge for past sectarian violence, notably last year’s massacre of 1,700 young Shia recruits when Isis, aided by local Sunni tribes, captured the city. Parallels are being drawn with nearby Fallujah, scene of apocalyptic devastation during the American occupation.
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The offensive threatens, potentially, to deliver an even more far-reaching and destabilising outcome: a strategic triumph for Iran. As US and Iraqi officials admit, with varying degrees of misgiving, Iran is more or less directing the show. The Shia militias, under the umbrella of the Hashd al-Shaabi “popular mobilisation units”, answer ultimately to Tehran, not Baghdad. Iran has provided them with weapons and training. And Iran’s most famous general, Qassem Suleimani, commander of the elite al-Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, reportedly took personal charge of operations last week.

Significantly, the offensive went ahead without any request for US air support. This is not surprising. For historical and political reasons, Tehran, like Washington, has no interest in overt cooperation, even against a common foe. It is plain Iran intends to win the battle for post-occupation Iraq by itself, without American help, and thereby attain the regional ascendancy that Washington and its allies vainly sought for themselves after 2003. A bitter eight-year war with Saddam’s regime now also seems forgotten. Iran, invited in by Abadi’s Shia predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, is rapidly advancing its influence and interests, almost unchecked.

The wider significance of the Salahuddin offensive is not lost on Iran’s foes. “What is happening in Tikrit is exactly what we are worried about. Iran is taking over Iraq,” said Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister. And this, remember, is the very same country whose liberation, in the name of western democratic values, was held, only 12 short years ago, to be of supreme and vital importance.

Now the US and Britain, lacking coherent, holistic policies towards both Iran and Iraq and reduced to the role of onlookers, keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best. Iran’s leadership role “could be a positive thing”, said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. Then again, it might not.

The US and its allies have launched hundreds of air strikes at Isis targets since August and Washington credits its attacks with halting the group’s territorial advances. But in the Tikrit offensive, which began on Monday, the US is on the sidelines. It is watching as Iran asserts influence by providing training, weapons and leadership for Iraqi Shia militias who are leading the charge.

Dempsey said he sees no evidence that the Iranian military is actually doing any of the fighting. They have improved the Iraqi militias’ fighting capabilities, but their role has also raised worries among America’s coalition allies, who include Gulf Arab countries who despise Iran. Dempsey plans to visit one of those Gulf allies, Bahrain, during his trip.

The general said that while Iran was getting credit for enabling the Tikrit offensive, the full story of how it was made possible has not been told.

Snage "velikog satane" i ozloglašene "terorističke" IRGC (revolucionarne garde Irana) na istoj strani

The Guardian view on Iran: America’s uncomfortable ally


After years of mutual hostility, Tehran and Washington are in effective alliance in Iraq in the struggle against Isis. That’s an irony with profound implications for the future of the Middle East


Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (second right) speaks in front of the mausoleum of the late Ayatollah Khomeini just outside Tehran. Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Friday 6 March 2015 19.27 GMT Last modified on Saturday 7 March 2015 00.08 GMT

An ever more visible feature of the ongoing US-led military operation against Islamic State (Isis) is the intertwining of this effort with Iran’s objectives in the region. Battling the same enemy, the old adversaries have found themselves a common cause. It is a striking illustration of how fast the Middle Eastern landscape is changing. There is much irony and paradox in this US-Iran duo. After all, Iran continues to call the US “the Great Satan”. Equally, in Washington, officials are careful not to describe the relationship with Tehran as having strategically shifted from the decades of enmity. Diplomatic relations that were cut off after Iran’s 1979 revolution have not been formally restored, even though high-level diplomatic contacts are now almost routine.



Even as US and Iranian negotiators pursue talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, with a tentative deadline approaching in two weeks, the realities of the war on Isis and its extremist Sunni Salafi ideology have bound the two powers together in unprecedented ways. Iran’s regional clout is growing in parallel. It was already strong, ever since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The US invasion of Iraq empowered the Shia community there, which Iran’s leaders see as part of their constituency and as a card in its confrontation with Saudi Arabia.

Iran and its armed forces are now playing a key role in defending Iraq’s government against the onslaught of Isis. In recent days, Iranian-backed militias have taken the lead in the fight against Isis around Tikrit, where the coalition has launched an offensive. The signs are that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are taking part. This is an organisation that has been targeted in the past by UN and US sanctions. Now it is, in effect, an entity whose role in Iraq – both in backing militias, and reportedly more directly – the US is learning to see as useful, if not necessary. After all, Barack Obama’s strategy against Isis hinges on avoiding anything smacking of direct military engagement with ground troops, increasing the effective reliance on Iran. Last August, the codependence first became apparent when US warplanes carried out missions over the Iraqi district of Amerli, thus providing close air support to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards active on the ground. Iran is today helping the Iraqis hold the line against Isis advances while American advisers are tasked with training Iraq’s armed forces.



Iran’s growing clout is also evident in the support it has been providing to the regime in Syria, without which Assad might have been toppled. Iran is a major player in Lebanon through the influence it exerts over Hezbollah. And some experts see Iran’s hands in the Houthi rebellion that has engulfed Yemen. How these regional power games and the Iran-US rapprochement will be dealt with by the Gulf Sunni states – who deeply resent the new situation – is a big uncertainty.

The US is already having trouble reassuring its Arab allies. This is one of the limitations its Iranian detente may soon run into, potentially threatening the cohesiveness of the anti-Isis coalition. The result of these uneasy balancing acts, alongside the nuclear negotiations, could reset the future of the Middle East.

Bejrut -- Koalicija, koju predvode SAD, je vazdušnom napadu pogodila rafineriju nafte u Siriji, koju drže pripadnici Islamske države, potvrdili su opozicioni aktivisti.

Prema njihovim navodima, u nedelju kasno noću gađana je rafinerija, u blizini tursko-sirijske granice, izvan grada Tel Abijada.

Video turske novinske agencije Dogan prikazao je ogromnu vatrenu loptu koja je zahvatila rafineriju, prilikom bombardovanja, prenosi AP.

Britanska organizacija za ljudska prava, smeštena u Siriji, procenila je da je u bombardovanju poginulo 30 ljudi.

Grupa sirijskih aktivista Raka je takođe izvestila o bombardovanju, a nije navodila brojeve.

Islamska država, koja kotroliše oko trećinu Sirije i Iraka, prodaje naftu na crnom tržištu, kako bi finansirala svoja osvajanja.

Koalicija, predvojena SAD-om, nije odmah priznala preduzimanje vazdušnih napada.

Izvor: Blic

Kairo -- Muslimanski propovednik iz Kuvajta pozvao je na uništenje najvećih simbola Egipta, piramida i Sfinge, navodeći da je vreme da se uništi faraonska baština.

Ibrahim Al Kandari je poziv uputio pripadnicima Islamske države, koji već nekoliko nedelja bezumno uništavaju kulturno blago u Iraku.

“Iako antički monumenti nisu religijska, već kulturna i istorijska mesta, ona moraju da budu uništena. Muslimani moraju da ih unište. Tako će se staviti tačka na slike obožavanja faraona“, naveo je Al Kandari za dnevnik Al-Vatan.

Prethodno je i suvereni lider Islamske države Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, u jednom od svojih retkih obraćanja, rekao da je uništavanje istorijskih spomenika “verska dužnost“, rečima da u njihovom viđenju islama nikakvi materijalni objekti ne mogu biti predmet obožavanja.

Radikalni islamisti, iz redova pokreta Salafi, su 2012. proglasili fatvu i zahtevali da se Egipat reši piramida i Sfinge, uz zahtev da se egipatsko Ministarstvo turizma ukine, uporedivši turizam sa prostitucijom i razvratom.

Izvor: B92

Još jedna kontroverza,desna ruka Kasima Sulejmanija i direktni komandant šiitskih snaga je Džamal Džafar Mohamed,poznatiji kao Abu mahdi Al Muhandis (inženjer),koga SAD smatraju odgovornim za bombaški napad na njihovu ambasadu u Kuvajtu 1983


How Iran’s military chiefs operate in Iraq




Fighters from the Shi'ite Badr Brigade militia guard a checkpoint outside the town of Sulaiman Pek. (File Photo: Reuters)

By Ned Parker, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Isabel Coles | Baghdad, Reuters
Wednesday, 25 February 2015

The face stares out from multiple billboards in central Baghdad, a grey-haired general casting a watchful eye across the Iraqi capital. This military commander is not Iraqi, though. He's Iranian.



The posters are a recent arrival, reflecting the influence Iran now wields in Baghdad.

Iraq is a mainly Arab country. Its citizens, Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims alike, have long mistrusted Iran, the Persian nation to the east. But as Baghdad struggles to fight the Sunni extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), many Shi'ite Iraqis now look to Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, as their main ally.

In particular, Iraqi Shi'ites have grown to trust the powerful Iranian-backed militias that have taken charge since the Iraqi army deserted en masse last summer. Dozens of paramilitary groups have united under a secretive branch of the Iraqi government called the Popular Mobilization Committee, or Hashid Shaabi.


Head of the Badr Organisation Hadi al-Amiri speaks during a news conference on the outskirts of Diyala province, north of Baghdad February 2, 2015. Picture taken February 2, 2015. (Reuters)

Created by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s predecessor Nuri al-Maliki, the official body now takes the lead role in many of Iraq's security operations. From its position at the nexus between Tehran, the Iraqi government, and the militias, it is increasingly influential in determining the country's future.



Until now, little has been known about the body. But in a series of interviews with Reuters, key Iraqi figures inside Hashid Shaabi have detailed the ways the paramilitary groups, Baghdad and Iran collaborate, and the role Iranian advisers play both inside the group and on the frontlines.

Those who spoke to Reuters include two senior figures in the Badr Organisation, perhaps the single most powerful Shi'ite paramilitary group, and the commander of a relatively new militia called Saraya al-Khorasani.

In all, Hashid Shaabi oversees and coordinates several dozen factions. The insiders say most of the groups followed a call to arms by Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But they also cite the religious guidance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, as a key factor in their decision to fight and – as they see it – defend Iraq.


A fighter from the Shi'ite Badr Brigade militia holds his gun at a mobile checkpoint in Suleiman Beg, northern Iraq. (File photo: Reuters)

Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization, told Reuters: “The majority of us believe that ... Khamenei has all the qualifications as an Islamic leader. He is the leader not only for Iranians but the Islamic nation. I believe so and I take pride in it.”

He insisted there was no conflict between his role as an Iraqi political and military leader and his fealty to Khamenei.

“Khamenei would place the interests of the Iraqi people above all else,” Amiri said.

From battlefield to hospital

Hashid Shaabi is headed by Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a former Badr commander who once plotted against Saddam Hussein and whom American officials have accused of bombing the U.S. embassy in Kuwait in 1983.



Iraqi officials say Mohandis is the right-hand man of Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Mohandis is praised by some militia fighters as “the commander of all troops” whose “word is like a sword above all groups.”

The body he heads helps coordinate everything from logistics to military operations against Islamic State. Its members say Mohandis' close friendships with both Soleimani and Amiri helps anchor the collaboration.

The men have known each other for more than 20 years, according to Muen al-Kadhimi, a Badr Organisation leader in western Baghdad. “If we look at this history,” Kadhimi said, “it helped significantly in organising the Hashid Shaabi and creating a force that achieved a victory that 250,000 (Iraqi) soldiers and 600,000 interior ministry police failed to do.”

Kadhimi said the main leadership team usually consulted for three to four weeks before major military campaigns. “We look at the battle from all directions, from first determining the field ... how to distribute assignments within the Hashid Shaabi battalions, consult battalion commanders and the logistics,” he said.

Soleimani, he said, “participates in the operation command centre from the start of the battle to the end, and the last thing (he) does is visit the battle's wounded in the hospital.”

Iraqi and Kurdish officials put the number of Iranian advisers in Iraq between 100 and several hundred - fewer than the nearly 3,000 American officers training Iraqi forces. In many ways, though, the Iranians are a far more influential force.

Iraqi officials say Tehran’s involvement is driven by its belief that Islamic State is an immediate danger to Shi'ite religious shrines not just in Iraq but also in Iran. Shrines in both nations, but especially in Iraq, rank among the sect's most sacred.

The Iranians, the Iraqi officials say, helped organise the Shi'ite volunteers and militia forces after Grand Ayatollah Sistani called on Iraqis to defend their country days after Islamic State seized control of the northern city of Mosul last June.

Prime Minister Abadi has said Iran has provided Iraqi forces and militia volunteers with weapons and ammunition from the first days of the war with Islamic State.


A tank belonging to the Shi'ite Badr Brigade militia takes position in front of a gas station in Suleiman Beg, northern Iraq. (File photo: Reuters)

They have also provided troops. Several Kurdish officials said that when Islamic State fighters pushed close to the Iraq-Iran border in late summer, Iran dispatched artillery units to Iraq to fight them. Farid Asarsad, a senior official from the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, said Iranian troops often work with Iraqi forces. In northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga soldiers “dealt with the technical issues like identifying targets in battle, but the launching of rockets and artillery – the Iranians were the ones who did that.”

Kadhimi, the senior Badr official, said Iranian advisers in Iraq have helped with everything from tactics to providing paramilitary groups with drone and signals capabilities, including electronic surveillance and radio communications.

“The U.S. stayed all these years with the Iraqi army and never taught them to use drones or how to operate a very sophisticated communication network, or how to intercept the enemy's communication,” he said. “The Hashid Shaabi, with the help of (Iranian) advisers, now knows how to operate and manufacture drones.”

A magical fighter

One of the Shi'ite militia groups that best shows Iran's influence in Iraq is Saraya al-Khorasani. It was formed in 2013 in response to Khamenei's call to fight Sunni jihadists, initially in Syria and later Iraq.

The group is responsible for the Baghdad billboards that feature Iranian General Hamid Taghavi, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Known to militia members as Abu Mariam, Taghavi was killed in northern Iraq in December. He has become a hero for many of Iraq's Shi'ite fighters.



Taghavi “was an expert at guerrilla war,” said Ali al-Yasiri, the commander of Saraya al-Khorasani. “People looked at him as magical.”

In a video posted online by the Khorasani group soon after Taghavi's death, the Iranian general squats on the battlefield, giving orders as bullets snap overhead. Around him, young Iraqi fighters with AK-47s press themselves tightly against the ground. The general wears rumpled fatigues and has a calm, grandfatherly demeanour. Later in the video, he rallies his fighters, encouraging them to run forward to attack positions.

Within two days of Mosul's fall on June 10 last year, Taghavi, a member of Iran's minority Arab population, travelled to Iraq with members of Iran's regular military and the Revolutionary Guard. Soon, he was helping map out a way to outflank Islamic State outside Balad, 50 miles (80 km) north of Baghdad.

Taghavi's time with Saraya al-Khorasani proved a boon for the group. Its numbers swelled from 1,500 to 3,000. It now boasts artillery, heavy machine guns, and 23 military Humvees, many of them captured from Islamic State.

“Of course, they are good,” Yasiri said with a grin. “They are American made.”

In November, Taghavi was back in Iraq for a Shi'ite militia offensive near the Iranian border. Yasiri said Taghavi formulated a plan to “encircle and besiege” Islamic State in the towns of Jalawala and Saadiya. After success with that, he began to plot the next battle. Yasiri urged him to be more cautious, but Taghavi was killed by a sniper in December.

At Taghavi's funeral, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, eulogised the slain commander. He was, said Shamkhani, one of those Iranians in Iraq “defending Samarra and giving their blood so we don't have to give our blood in Tehran.” Both Soleimani and the Badr Organisation's Amiri were among the mourners.

A new Iraqi soul

Saraya al-Khorasani's headquarters sit in eastern Baghdad, inside an exclusive government complex that houses ministers and members of parliament. Giant pictures of Taghavi and other slain al-Khorasani fighters hang from the exterior walls of the group's villa.

Commander Yasiri walks with a cane after he was wounded in his left leg during a battle in eastern Diyala in November. On his desk sits a small framed drawing of Iran's Khamenei.

He describes Saraya al-Khorasani, along with Badr and several other groups, as “the soul” of Iraq’s Hashid Shaabi committee.

Not everyone agrees. A senior Shi'ite official in the Iraqi government took a more critical view, saying Saraya al-Khorasani and the other militias were tools of Tehran. “They are an Iranian-made group that was established by Taghavi. Because of their close ties with Iranians for weapons and ammunition, they are so effective,” the official said.

Asarsad, the senior Kurdish official, predicts Iraq's Shi'ite militias will evolve into a permanent force that resembles the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. That sectarian force, he believes, will one day operate in tandem with Iraq's regular military.

“There will be two armies in Iraq,” he said.

That could have big implications for the country’s future. Human rights groups have accused the Shi’ite militias of displacing and killing Sunnis in areas they liberate — a charge the paramilitary commanders vigorously deny. The militias blame any excesses on locals and accuse Sunni politicians of spreading rumours to sully the name of Hashid Shaabi.

The senior Shi'ite official critical of Saraya al-Khorasani said the militia groups, which have the freedom to operate without directly consulting the army or the prime minister, could yet undermine Iraq's stability. The official described Badr as by far the most powerful force in the country, even stronger than Prime Minister Abadi.

Amiri, the Badr leader, rejected such claims. He said he presents his military plans directly to Abadi for approval.

His deputy Kadhimi was in no doubt, though, that the Hashid Shaabi was more powerful than the Iraqi military.

“A Hashid Shaabi (soldier) sees his commander ... or Haji Hadi Amiri or Haji Mohandis or even Haji Qassem Soleimani in the battle, eating with them, sitting with them on the ground, joking with them. This is why they are ready to fight,” said Kadhimi. “This is why it is an invincible force.