US transfers Daesh prisoners to Iraqi-Syrian border: Report

The US military has transferred Daesh prisoners to the Iraqi-Syrian border in order to provide a pretext for its continued presence in the region and for future attacks on the Syrian army, local sources say.

American forces used choppers to relocate the Daesh inmates from prisons in Hasakah province in northeast Syria to the Iraqi border, Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV quoted on-the-ground sources as saying.

According to the report, US helicopters transfer Daesh prisoners from Ghuwayran and al-Sena’aa prisons to American bases near the border several times a day.

Over 100 prisoners earlier transferred to the Iraqi border have been released after being armed by the US military for attack on the positions of the Syrian army and their allies in the Syrian and Iraqi deserts, the sources said.

In the last three months of 2020, the Americans transferred dozens of Daesh prisoners from al-Shaddadi and al-Hasakah prisons in Hasakah to the “55 KM area” of al-Tanf, where the US military base is located, using them for attacks against the Syrian army positions, according to Al Mayadeen.

Daesh suffers another blow in Iraq

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, targeted several gatherings of Daesh terrorists in northern Samarra in Saladin province, on Thursday night.

The operation started after the PMU’s 313th brigade received precise confidential intelligence, leaving an unknown number of the terrorists dead or injured.

The Takfiri terror group has already lost all urban strongholds it once held, thanks to continued anti-terror operations by the Iraqi army and its allied fighters from Hashd al Sha’abi. However, Daesh remnants, every so often, attack civilians and soldiers alike in the Arab country.

Hashd al-Sha’abi has recently focused on detection and destruction of Daesh slipper cells in the Arab country.

However, Washington has accordingly ramped up its measures against the popular anti-terror forces.

Earlier this month, the United States imposed sanctions on PMU chairman Falih al-Fayyadh, accusing him of being responsible for a crackdown by security forces on anti-government demonstrations in Baghdad and later in several other cities in late 2019.

US puts chairman of Iraqi anti-terror Hashd al-Sha’abi forces on sanctions list

The US Treasury imposes sanctions on former Iraqi national security adviser and chairman of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Falih al-Fayyadh.

Fayyadh is one of the most senior Iraqi officials to be placed on the US sanctions blacklist.

On Wednesday, the US Department of Treasury issued a fresh wave of sanctions on senior anti-terror Iraqi figure, Abdul Aziz al-Mohammedawi, also known as Abu Fadak, listing him as a specially designated terrorist.

Mohammedawi was named the PMU’s deputy chief last year, replacing Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was assassinated along with Iran’s top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in an American drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

US admits to its defeat: Kata’ib

Iraqi resistance group Kata’ib Hezbollah, which is part of the PMU, released a statement on Thursday night to condemn the US blacklisting of Mohammedawi.

It praised Abu Fadak's long-time struggles against the occupying forces, and said the enemies are afraid of him.

“The US villains’ resort to the absurd weapon of sanctions and blacklisting those who have fought the US hegemony and its offspring Daesh is an admission to defeat and confession of weakness,” it added.

Sanctions on Mohammedawi ‘violation of Iraq sovereignty’

PMU chief Fayyadh also condemned the US blacklisting of Mohammedawi as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and a move to undermine the Arab country’s official institutions and the parliament.

“Hashd al-Sha’abi is part of Iraq’s official military establishment, operating under the command of the chief-commander of armed forces, and fully obeying the rules and regulations,” Fayyadh said.

“It is unacceptable that those who fought terrorism and made great sacrifices during the fiercest battles against Daesh terrorists on behalf of the world … are now categories as terrorists,” he added.

PMU fighters have helped the army regain control of Daesh-held territories, which were captured by the terrorist group after it launched an offensive in the Arab country in June 2014.

Three years after Daesh began its campaign of death and destruction in Iraq, the army finally managed to vanquish the terror group and regain control of all the lost territories, thanks to the PMU fighters and Iran’s military advisory assistance.

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