US Raises Security Status at Bases in Iraq after Warning by Popular Forces

"The US army has intensified security measures around its bases in Iraq and prevents presence of forces affiliated to Hashd al-Shaabi in a radius of, at least, 20km," Iraqi officials were quoted as saying by the Arabic-language al-Arabi al-Jadid newspaper on Wednesday.

The officials added that the responsibility to protect the US bases, including Ain al-Assad in al-Anbar province and Balad in Salahuddin province, has been rendered to the Iraqi army and police forces as well as the US forces themselves.

An official at the Secretariat of the Iraqi Government was quoted by the daily as saying that the US army has taken the threats by Hashd al-Shaabi against the presence of its forces in Iraq much seriously.

The report came after spokesman and a senior commander of Iraq's Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini warned that the chances are more than ever that clashes break out between them and the US military men deployed in the Arab country.

"Clashes may break out with the Americans at any time, and this time no mediation will help the Americans and it is not like the past," al-Hosseini was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel as saying earlier this month.

He described the US military deployment as occupation of Iraq, and said, "It was the Americans who brought the ISIL to Iraq to have a pretext to return."

Al-Hosseini said that the weapons and equipment seized from the ISIL terrorists in the town of Tikrit in Iraq were the ones used merely by the American forces.

In relevant remarks last September, al-Hosseini had warned the US to withdraw its military men from Iraq once the ISIL is fully defeated in the country..

He described the American forces' presence as the biggest obstacle to Iraq's anti-terrorism fight, and called for the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq after the ISIL will be defeated.

Also, last March, al-Hosseini warned that his forces will target the US forces if they don’t leave the Iraqi territories after annihilation of the ISIL terrorists.

"If the US forces refrain from leaving the Iraqi territories after annihilation of the ISIL terrorist group, the Islamic resistance of Iraq will target them," al-Hosseini said.

Noting that the US forces are protecting rather than fighting against the ISIL terrorists in Iraq, he said that the Americans have increased their activities in Iraq in recent days through their military advisors the number of their flights and want to open some space for themselves in the anti-ISIL campaign to be able to render more support to the terrorist group.

Al-Hosseini described the ISIL and the US as two sides of the same coin, and said the Americans' presence in Mosul is not aimed at uprooting ISIL as they plan to make sure of their deployment in the region after expulsion of the ISIL.

He said that the ISIL has been created and nurtured by the US, and added that Washington wants to fool the world again and introduce itself as a partner in the anti-ISIL war.