IraqExplicitly Shi’a name for Iraqi military operation in Anbar province “unhelpful”: U.S.

Published 27 May 2015

The United States said it was disappointed with the decision by Iraqi militias to use an explicitly Shi’a name for a military operation in Anbar province, Iraq’s Sunni heartland. The Pentagon said it could only exacerbate sectarian tensions in the country. A coalition group of Iran-trained Iraqi Shi’a militias said it had decided to use the name “Operation Labaik ya Hussein,” which translates as “We are at your service, Hussein,” for a military campaign to drive Islamic State out of Ramadi – and, later, out of Anbar province. The name refers to one of the most revered imams in Shi’a Islam.

The United States said it was disappointed with the decision by Iraqi militias to use an explicitly Shi’a name for a military operation in Anbar province, Iraq’s Sunni heartland. The Pentagon said it could only exacerbate sectarian tensions in the country.

A coalition group of Iran-trained Iraqi Shi’a militias, called Hashed al-Shaabi, said it had decided to call a military campaign to drive Islamic State out of Ramadi – and, later, out of Anbar province — “Operation Labaik ya Hussein,” which translates as “We are at your service, Hussein.”

The name refers to one of the most revered imams in Shi’a Islam.

“I think it’s unhelpful,” U.S.-led coalition spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said. “We’ve long said … the key to victory, the key to expelling ISIL from Iraq is a unified Iraq,” Warren said. This required “a unified Iraq that separates itself from sectarian divides, coalesces around this common threat and works to expel ISIL from Iraq”, he said.

“The solution is a unified Iraqi government,” he added.

Iraqi government officials told the Guardian that about 4,000 fighters from the militia group were on their way to the northern edge of Ramadi as a first step to drive the Islamic State jihadists from the city, which the militants captured on 17 May.

The United States pressured the Iraqi government not to send in Iran-backed Shi’a militias to Anbar, a predominantly Sunni province. The ISIS advance in Ramadi, however, and the collapse of the Iraqi military units in the face of numerically inferior ISIS fighters, convinced Iraq to approve the deployment of the Iran-backed Shi’a militias.

The United States does not want to see a growing role for Iran in Iraq, and is wary of the Baghdad government relying on Iran-trained militias, since the using these militias to fight ISIS is not the best way to persuade the Sunnis to join the fight. Most Iraqi Sunnis oppose jihadist Islam, as they proved in 2006-2007, when they defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS predecessor. These Sunnis, however, are not going to fight ISIS in order help the Shi’a government in Baghdad strengthen its hold over the country.

Still, with the Iraqi army proving itself incapable of standing up and fighting, Washington has little choice but approve the plan to send the Shi’a militias into Anbar province.

“Many of them (the Shi’a militias in the Anbar area) are under the control of the central government,” Warren said.

He added, though: “I don’t know whether any that are there are not under the control of the government.”