Iraq Militia at War with America Has ‘Surprises’ in Store for Biden

The political chief of a powerful Iran-backed Iraqi militia engaged in an ongoing series of attacks against U.S. troops in response to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has issued a new, direct warning to President Joe Biden in a rare, exclusive interview with Newsweek.

“Our message to Biden is to withdraw your forces from the region and preserve what remains of your presence, because you will withdraw in humiliation from the strikes of the Axis of Resistance, and [your forces] will reach their families in scattered pieces,” Sheikh Ali al-Asadi, chair of the Nujaba Islamic Resistance Movement Political Council, told Newsweek in his first comments to Western media since the offensive was launched against U.S. forces in mid-October.

The “Axis of Resistance” is a term used to refer to a broad, informal coalition of Iran-aligned groups opposed to Israel and the presence of the U.S. military in the Middle East. It includes mostly Shiite Muslim formations, though a number of Palestinian Sunni Muslim factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have also forged close ties with it.

In Iraq, the Nujaba Movement, also called the Hezbollah al-Nujaba Movement, is one of several militias acting under the banner of the “Islamic Resistance of Iraq” that has claimed more than 75 rocket and drone attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since an unprecedented Hamas-led surprise attack against Israel sparked the latest and deadliest-ever war in Gaza exactly two months ago.

As Israeli forces pressed on with their most intensive campaign in Gaza to date, the U.S. has also conducted airstrikes against Iraqi militias tied to Iran, most recently killing five members of the Nujaba Movement on Sunday. Now, Asadi asserted that his group and others allied with it were preparing to ramp up their campaign against U.S. forces as the conflict in Gaza continued to inflame regional tensions.

“The truth is that the movement and the Axis of Resistance have set an escalation schedule with this war, which America is directly leading, and there will be surprises that America did not expect from the Axis of Resistance,” Asadi said. “The axis has arranged its situation to fight a long-term battle, and we believe that America is now going through its weakest state, and they do not have the ability to negotiate.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/exclusive-iraq-militia-at-war-with-america-has-surprises-in-store-for-biden/ar-AA1l8EOo

Source » msn