Originally Posted by
melmothtw
Have no idea what any of this has to do with military aviation, but hey ho.
It is at least somewhat related to a previous military aviation operation.
Originally Posted by Reuters
Nearly 100 people were killed in the blasts at a memorial service for military commander General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a U.S. drone. {snip} Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said: "Various individuals have been arrested in five cities in five provinces, who have supported this incident or been linked to it. Details will be announced in the next few hours", the state news agency reported.
Islamic State said on Thursday two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered for Soleimani's memorial in the southeastern city.
I guess that Islamic state doesn't have the air assets they need to do something similar - thankfully, from my PoV - so they resort to a ground operation.
With that said, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq does have air assets. They are an Iran backed militia organization.
They made an attack within the last day.
Armed drone targets US base in northern Iraq
Reuters | January 5, 202410:48 AM CST
BAGHDAD, Jan 5 (Reuters) - An armed drone on Friday hit Iraq's al-Harir airbase, where U.S. and international forces are stationed, Iraqi Kurdistan's counter-terrorism service said. A service statement did not elaborate on whether the attack caused casualties or infrastructure damage.A group called
the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it had attacked al-Harir military base by drone. Friday's action took place a day after the U.S. military carried out a retaliatory strike in Baghdad that killed a militia leader it blames for recent attacks on U.S. personnel, the Pentagon said.
This
militia organization is of interest ..
Name: Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyah fi al-Iraq (the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, or IRI). An umbrella term used to describe the operations of all Iran-backed militias in Iraq, including strikes into Syria during the October 2023 conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Type of movement: Kinetic military operations, both national and transnational. Anti-U.S. targets in Iraq and Syria, stemming from the U.S. role in the Gaza crisis.
History: During the October 2023 conflict between Israel and Hamas, Iraqi
muqawama (resistance) militias attacked U.S. troops based in Iraq and Syria. They have claimed the
following attacks under the IRI brand:
- October 17, 2023: drone attack on Harir Air Base in Iraqi Kurdistan. This attack was initially claimed by Tashkil al-Waritheen; soon thereafter, a superseding claim was issued by the IRI brand and the Waritheen claim was removed in deference. One Qasef-2K drone was used in the strike.
- Twenty subsequent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria as of October 30, 2023.
Objectives:
- To allow various Iraqi muqawama militias to launch attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria under one umbrella term.
- The militias may see benefit in obscuring which exact groups are attacking U.S. bases.
- Using a generic, no-logo brand is perhaps the ultimate extension of the “facade strategy” that Iran and its proxies have used since 2019 to avoid accountability for attacks on Americans.
- To show unity behind attacks against U.S. interests during the Israel-Hamas conflict, essentially "reporting for duty" as one force. This strongly suggests that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) is corralling its many Iraqi "resistance" proxies, which otherwise tend to argue over local leadership.
Chain of command:
- The balance of available evidence suggests that the IRGC-QF plays a role in coordinating the IRI brand. Iraqi armed groups tend to jealously guard their individual identities and the credit they derive (directly or via facade groups linked to them) from attacks, so their willingness to submerge these identities and even recant an individual group attack claim suggests that a higher power is coordinating them. Furthermore, co-branding with Tashkil al-Waritheen in the October 17 strike on Harir indicates a direct link to an IRGC-QF direct-operated group with close ties to Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba.
- Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba has publicly affiliated itself with the IRI brand, releasing a threatening video on October 30, 2023, that includes footage of drone attacks originally published on IRI's Telegram channel. These videos purported to show the moment of launch for a number of drone attacks on U.S. positions. Nujaba did not actively claim to control IRI, though it is likely some of the attacks claimed by this facade group were carried out by teams controlled by Nujaba.
- The Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee (al-Haya al-Tansiqiya lil-Muqawama al-Iraqiya, or Tansiqiya for short).