The Islamic Resistance in Iraq: what do we know about the militia that attacked the US in Jordan?

The explosion of a drone recorded on Sunday, January 28, at a US base located north of Jordan is considered the worst blow suffered by US forces in middle East since the beginning of the war between Israel It is Hamas. Washington guarantees that behind the attack that left 3 soldiers dead and at least 40 injured is the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), a group supported by Iran that claimed responsibility for more than one hundred and a half attacks against US military centers in Iraq and Syria.

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According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, IRI planned, financed and facilitated the attack, but the United States considers Iran responsible for it. Furthermore, he assured that President Joe Biden is considering different options for retaliation, adding that “It won’t be a single blow”.

Tehran, in turn, responded to the accusations through its permanent representative at the UN, who assured that Iran “It has no connection or anything to do with the attack on the US base”. However, the Islamic government later threatened “respond decisively”To any attack against him.

Tower 22, the American counterintelligence base, is located on the Jordanian border with Syria. (Planet Laboratories/AFP/)

IRI was first known on October 17, 2023, ten days after Israel declared war on Hamas following the terrorist attacks. According to the Meir Amit Terrorism and Intelligence Information Center, the group appeared through a Telegram channel in which it claimed responsibility for the attack on the US air base in Harir, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

By October 30, IRI had claimed responsibility for another 20 attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. To date, the number of attacks exceeds 150, according to the Pentagon.

Later, on November 2, the IRI announced that it was also attacking Israeli bases, although Jewish forces did not confirm that they had registered any of them.

According to the Meir Amit center, the IRI is an umbrella organization under which several pro-Iran militias led by the Quds Force, the powerful elite paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, come together.

It is believed that the IRI emerged as part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition that brings together the militias that emerged after the US invasion of Iraq and that was created to confront the Islamic State, but that after the fall of the jihadist group continued operating with the support of Iran.

These would be the organizations grouped under the umbrella of the IRI, according to Arab media.

According to the Washington Institute, the IRI does not have any distinctive flag or logo and would represent the maximum peak within the “façade strategy”Used by Iran to avoid responsibility for its attacks against the United States.

Organizations specializing in monitoring and studying terrorist groups have not, to date, been able to identify the leader or committee that directs the IRI. However, it became known that groups such as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Al-Warithuun, Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada declared themselves part of the IRI.

The United States considers all of these organizations to be terrorist groups.

Biden, who this Friday, the 2nd, will receive the remains of the soldiers killed in Jordan during a ceremony at the White House, assured that “Those responsible will be held accountable, when and how we deem appropriate.”.

This has raised fears, once again, that the region will be plunged into widespread war. Adding to this new moment of tension are Iranian attacks in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, in addition to US air operations against the Houthi rebels in Yemen for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Source: Elcomercio