Iraqi militias threaten to send US troops home in coffins & target civilians if they re-elect Trump

The US public must persuade Donald Trump to withdraw American troops from Iraq or become the target of retaliation, Iraqi militias, whose commander was killed in the airstrike on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, warned.

The deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was among the Iranian and Iraqi officials killed in a US operation in Baghdad on Friday.

And PMF, which unites some 40 militias and has around 150,000 members, promised that they won’t let American “criminals” get away with murder.

“All retaliation options are on the table… no red lines shall hinder our revenge,” Jawad Al Telbawi, a commander of one of the factions within the group, told the Independent. “We shall convulse the ground underneath the American army’s feet in Iraq. These
are not slogans, rather truths in which we believe.”

The threat was directed at “fool and a blackmailer” Trump, his administration and the US military, stationed in Iraq, but Telbawi also had plenty to say to ordinary Americans.

He called upon US citizens to “pressure” the Trump administration to pull out American troops from the Iraqi territory “before we send your soldiers back in coffins.”

If the American people re-elect Trump to the US presidency [in 2020], this would mean they support his crimes. This may change our position towards the American people. All American interests in the region will be at risk.

Anti-American sentiment was already strong in Iraq as local protesters tried storming the US embassy in Baghdad before the New Year. But it skyrocketed after the US strike against Soleimani, which Washington carried out without even notifying the Iraqi authorities.

In the wake of the attack, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling for the removal of US and other foreign troops from the country. 

On Monday, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi spoke with US ambassador to Baghdad Matthew Tueller about “the importance of mutual cooperation on implementing the withdrawal of foreign troops” and preventing “the descent into open war.” But both the US president and the secretary of defense said they are not ready to leave yet, insisting Iraqis want them to stay.

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