US to Keep Backing Daesh to Reach Targets: Iraqi Commander
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US will keep propping up the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group as long as Washington's vicious plots in the Middle East are not met, commander of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, an Iraqi voluntary armed group, said.
In an interview with the Tasnim News Agency in Iraq, Qais al-Khazali said creation of Daesh was masterminded by the US, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar support the notorious group.
“Daesh is a tool for Americans to disintegrate the regional countries, and will continue to live and be strengthened until the US purposes are achieved,” he explained.
“Americans will regularly revitalize Daesh as long as they do not meet their objectives, but Daesh will die out immediately after Americans reach their goal,” Khazali added.
Commenting on the operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Daesh, the commander made it clear that military action is the one and only way to flush the Takfiri terrorists out of the city, dismissing any political approach or negotiation with the militants.
He also noted that the operation to liberate Fallujah will drag on for an unspecified period, maybe months, if the voluntary forces, known as the Popular Mobilization Units or Hashid al-Shaabi, are not involved.
But, Khazali added, if Hashid al-Shaabi takes part in the Fallujah liberation operation, the city will be recaptured within a few days or two weeks.
Earlier, Hashid al-Shaabi spokesman had said that the voluntary forces are ready to take action inside Fallujah if the army’s operation to cleanse the beleaguered city of Daesh terrorists takes too long and the clashes turn into a war of attrition.
According to reports, the city of Fallujah is fully surrounded by the Iraqi forces, and the army troops and the Federal Police forces are advancing toward city center from two directions in the southern areas.
Led by the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq's best trained and most seasoned fighting unit, the Iraqi army entered Fallujah on May 30 in a major offensive that began a week earlier.
In January 2014, Fallujah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, became the first Iraqi city to fall under the control of the terrorists, six months before they declared a caliphate over territory seized in Iraq and Syria.
