How Washington punished, sanctioned Tehran allies, proxies

Moaaz Mohamed

Iran has promised harsh revenge after a U.S. air strike in Baghdad on Friday killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and architect of its growing military influence in the Middle East.

It is likely that Tehran will be waving its arms and proxies within the region, including Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen, but what has the U.S. done with these proxies in the past?

On December 27, a U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several troops injured in a 30-plus rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk.

Two days after the Kirkuk attack, U.S. F-15 warplanes bombed three sites in Iraq, one of them the city of Al-Qaim, and two sites in Syria’s Euphrates River Valley. Iraqi sources said 25 people were killed and 50 wounded, including commanders.

U.S. officials did not disclose precise locations but said the targets, tied to Kataeb Hezbollah, included weapons storage sites and command posts used to coordinate attacks against coalition troops.

On January 2, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the United States could take pre-emptive military action if it gets sufficient warning that Iran or its proxy forces are planning further strikes on U.S. interests in the Middle East.

“We’re prepared to do what is necessary to defend our personnel and our interests and our partners in the region,” Esper told reporters at the Pentagon, citing a series of violent attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq in recent months by Iran-supported militia groups.

The U.S. has been calling for the withdrawal of Iranian militias in Syria since mid-2018, which Tehran never complied to.

Moving to Hezbollah, Iran’s arm in Lebanon, we find that America is fighting it in other ways away from “weapons and ammunition.” During the past months, it has imposed sanctions on its members, in addition to calling on its allies to classify it as a” terrorist organization.”

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism Financing, Marshall Billingsley, also affirmed in September 2019, that the main focus was to restrain Hezbollah and limit its links with the Lebanese and international banking system.

The U.S. State Department designated Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a largely Shiite Iraqi militia and political group, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Friday, January 3.

Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, also known as AAH, is one of the largest Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, militias.

Moreover, the United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Trump has said, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.

In a statement, Trump added this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”.

In July 2018, the US State Department designated Iran’s arm in Bahrain, Al Ashtar Brigades, as a terrorist organization.

Manama has long blamed Iran for bomb attacks and for stoking 2011 anti-government protests against Bahrain’s Sunni rulers that were suppressed by the security forces of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The most well-known of the underground groups, Al Ashtar Brigades, has claimed responsibility for about 20 bombings including a 2014 attack that killed three police officers, including one from the UAE.

In August 2018, the US State Department designated head of the brigades, Qassim Al Muamen as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the State Department.

Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad’s airport. U.S. officials characterize the attack as a “defensive action,” saying Soleimani planned attacks on U.S. diplomats and troops.

Soleimani was killed while leaving the airport in a convoy. He was commander of the Quds Force, a unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Trump branded a foreign terrorist group.