Paramilitaries say JOC was aware of U.S.airstrikes against forces on Iraqi-Syrian borders
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces.
In a press conference held on Sunday, abu Montather al-Husseini, head of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) operations, said the outcome of preliminary investigations on the U.S. shelling against the troops showed that missiles were fired, based on U.S. plans, from a distance of 200 meters to strike one of our pivotal locations in Qaim, on borders between Iraq and Syria.
Husseini added that both the Joint Operations Command and the commander of Jazira and Badiya Operations, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mohammadi, knew that our troops were deployed there.
Mohammadi, according to Husseini, “informed the Joint Operations Command by mistake that the troops were deployed 1500 kilometers away from the borders, after one of the commanders told him the information mistakenly. However, he did not correct it.”
The targeted region “is one of the important strategic region on the Iraqi-Syrian borders,” he said indicating its importance to defend Qaim aw well. “The crime is a war crime. We urge the government to defend rights of those martyrs.”
Last week, PMFs said up to 34 fighters of its members were killed and wounded after the U.S.-led international coalition targeted a military outpost in the Syrian city of Al-Bu Kamal.
Meanwhile, abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of PMFs, described the statement issued by JOC, issued after the airstrikes as ‘hasty’, saying that it attributed information to him that he did not say.
The statement, according to Muhandis, “was hasty when it announced that the troops targeted on Iraqi-Syrian borders were outside the Iraqi lands and that they were not linked to al-hashd al-Shaabi.”
Muhandis also accused the statement of “attributing something to me that I did not say about being aware of the statement issued by al-hashd al-Shaabi”
“The shelled troops is part of al-Hashd al-Shaabi. They were part of the defense line since launching Qaim operations