Iran Deploys Forces to Fight Jihadists in Iraq
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (Worthy News)– Iran has deployed two Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq to protect Baghdad, and the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf, The Wall Street Journal reported.
With the Sunni jihadists of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) rapidly gaining territory, Iran deployed troops to protect its interests in the Shiite dominated government in Iraq.
The Shiite crescent — stretching from Iran to Iraq, Lebanon and Syria — is now waging war against the ISIS who seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in the territory it controls between Iraq and Syria.
The civil war in Syria turned Iraq into an important operational base for Iran as the Islamic republic used Iraq to flow weapons, cash, and military to assist the Assad regime, which is dominated by an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
With the involvement of Iran in Iraq, this would pose yet another security challenge to the Obama Administration and raises the prospects of the United States and Iran fighting on the same side.
At stake for Iran is not only its Shiite political ally in Baghdad, but the cities of Karbala and Najaf, which along with Mecca and Medina are sacred to Shiites worldwide.
A spokesman for the militant group ISIS, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group’s Sunni fighters to march toward the “filth-ridden” Karbala and “the city of polytheism” Najaf, where they would “settle their differences” with Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“March to Baghdad al-Rashid, the Baghdad of the Caliphate. We have a score to settle … Be certain of the victory of Allah as long as you fear Him,” Al-Adnani said in an audio release according to intelligence sources.
“Baghdad is going to be overrun,” an intelligence official told Fox News. “The Green zone is going down.”
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army warned without U.S. intervention that Iraq will turn to Iran for help.
“My sources tell me Maliki believes he is in a desperate situation and wants and needs our support,” Keane, told Fox News. “If he doesn’t get it in a way that will help him, he will certainly turn to Iran.”