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Iraq’s Nujaba leader urges US to ‘take lessons’ from defeat in Afghanistan

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 4:33 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 August 2021 4:54 PM ]

Nasr al-Shammari, the deputy secretary-general and spokesman of Iraq’s Al-Nujaba resistance movement (File Photo)

A senior leader of Iraq’s al-Nujaba resistance movement has urged the American forces stationed in the Arab country to “take lessons” from their humiliating defeat in and ouster from Afghanistan.

Nasr al-Shammari, the deputy secretary-general and spokesman of the group, in a statement on Tuesday, said the turn of events in war-ravaged Afghanistan carry “two important lessons.”

The first lesson, he asserted, is that the resistance, led by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), in 2014 prevented the capital city of Baghdad from meeting the fate of Kabul.

The second lesson pertains to American mercenaries and their allies in Iraq that they should immediately leave the country “as long as the way of return to the homeland is still open.”

He went on to declare that the day of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq “is not far off.”

The astonishing speed and aggression with which the Taliban militant group laid siege to Kabul and other strategic provincial capitals of Afghanistan last week has left the whole world stunned.

The takeover by the Taliban took the US government by c surprise as they rushed military reinforcements to Kabul to oversee the evacuation of US diplomats from the country.

US allies react mutely to Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan

United States allies are reacting mutely to the Taliban’s victory march into the Afghan capital city of Kabul 20 years after a US-led invasion removed the militants from power.

Reactions have been coming in from different quarters, with the Western governments largely cautious, while the popular resistance movements in the region more open and welcoming.

With the US pulling out of Afghanistan, ending its longest war, calls have intensified for the American forces in Iraq to beat the retreat in Iraq, where it has maintained military presence since 2013.

The attacks on the US forces in Iraq have seen an alarmingly spike in last few years, especially since the assassination of top anti-terror commanders Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, with resistance groups and the people of Iraq demanding the ouster of foreign occupying forces.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Iran’s newly-elected President Ebrahim Raeisi had a telephonic conversation with Iraqi premier Mustafa Al-Kadhimi on Tuesday.

The two officials discussed various bilateral and regional issues, including developments in neighboring Afghanistan, and regional peace and security.

Raeisi is expected to attend an upcoming regional summit in Baghdad, which will be his first foreign visit since assuming office earlier this month.

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