US legislators call for action against Iraq’s Iran-linked paramilitary groups

Letter signed by 10 Republican representatives demands that Baghdad cut ties with groups associated with Tehran

A march marking the anniversary of the killings of leaders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force near Baghdad in 2020. AFP

Ten Republican members of the US House of Representatives have demanded that Washington designate several Iraqi paramilitary groups with ties to Iran as terrorist organisations and suspend security assistance to Baghdad over its recognition of these groups as part of the state's security forces.

The demand was made in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz dated January 28, and was posted on X by one of its signatories, Representative Joe Wilson.

The letter calls for the designation of several groups that are part of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, which was made a branch of the Iraqi state's security forces after helping to defeat ISIS and end the extremists group's occupation of northern and western Iraq between 2014 and 2017.

Mr Wilson, former chairman of the Middle East House subcommittee, has also written to foreign affairs committee chairman Brian Mast to call for an investigation into former White House adviser Brett McGurk over “failed” Middle East policies that "endangered US national security".

Both letters cite part of a 2022 report by the Department of Defence Inspector General that highlights the influence of the powerful PMF-linked Badr Organisation in Iraq's ministries of defence and interior and units of its army.

They also point out Iraqi National Security Adviser Qasim Al Araji's links to the group and his previous detention by the US in connection with attacks on American forces in Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led 2003 invasion.

The letter to Mr Rubio and Mr Waltz calls for terrorist designations for the Badr Organisation as well as the Abu Fadl Al Abbas Brigades; the Fatemiyoun Brigade; Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba; Kataeb Al Imam Ali; Kataeb Jund Al Imam; Kataeb Sayyed Al Shuhada; Saraya Al Jihad; Saraya Khorasani; and the Zainabiyoun Brigades.

It also calls for terrorism-related sanctions on the Badr Organisation, Abu Fadl Al Abbas Brigades, Kataeb Al Imam Ali, Kataeb Jund Al Imam, Saraya Al Jihad and Saraya Khorasani.

The House representatives said they wanted all US security assistance to Iraq to be suspended "as long as any Iranian-backed militia or foreign terrorist organisation are legally part of the Iraqi state or funded or trained by the government of Iraq".

While the US withdrew its forces from Iraq by 2011, they later returned as part of the international coalition against ISIS and remain in the country alongside other foreign troops to train and assist Iraqi forces in preventing a resurgence of the extremist group.

Iraqi military bases hosting US troops have faced repeated unclaimed attacks with mortars, rockets or drones amid demands for their withdrawal from Iran-allied factions. The attacks increased after the Gaza war began in October 2023 but subsided under a truce agreed to give Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani's government time to negotiate a US troop pullout with Washington.