The Iraqi military is training a former member of an Iran-backed militia, who is under US sanctions for killing protesters, to become a high-ranking officer in the army, six government, security and militia officials said.
Hussein Falih Aziz, known as Abu Zainab al-Lami, was sent to Egypt with Iraqi officers for a year-long training normally reserved for the country’s military personnel, they said.
His name, with the rank of major general, appeared on an Iraqi Ministry of Defense list of officers attending the training until next summer.
Photo: Reuters
Making al-Lami a senior officer in the army is one of the boldest moves yet by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, a US ally, to dilute the power of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, the officials said, adding that it aligns with Washington’s stated desire to curtail Tehran’s influence across the Middle East.
An Iraqi government spokesman and Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
A source close to al-Lami confirmed his deployment to Egypt for training.
Supporters of the plan see it as a way of weakening militias that boast tens of thousands of fighters and who hold considerable sway over Iraq’s security and economy.
They have said that it would hasten the fracturing of some groups belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces; PMF), the state paramilitary umbrella organization whose security branch al-Lami has directed for years.
An Iraqi official declined to comment on al-Lami, but said that there was a plan to restructure the PMF, including providing military training to its leaders.
However, some critics have said that the move is a risky gamble that puts someone with a questionable human rights record and close ties with Iran at the heart of the Iraqi military.
They see it as another sign that the prime minister is giving concessions even to some of the most hardline, Iran-aligned officials to secure support for his government.
“The plan is to bring onside PMF leaders who are not seen as totally loyal to Iran and to ready them through this military training for positions inside the military,” a security official said.
“Al-Lami will be given a senior position when training is completed,” added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He did not specify what post al-Lami would take up.
Egyptian military officials denied that al-Lami was among a batch of Iraqi officers undergoing training in Egypt, but one Egyptian security source said that al-Lami was in Egypt last month, without elaborating.
Al-Lami is the head of security for Iraq’s state paramilitary grouping and a one-time member of the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia.
The source close to him denied he had any formal ties to Iran or the militias it supports.
Last year, he was put under US sanctions for his alleged role in ordering the use of lethal force against anti-government protesters.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS