SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: he group said it acted “in retaliation for the blood of the martyr, the leader Ali al-Husseini al-Khamenei, and in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

https://x.com/shanaka86/status/2028260257252938169

Shanaka Anslem Perera

On the evening of March 1, a swarm of drones struck the US military base near Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq. The drones hit an ammunition depot. Secondary explosions followed. A massive fire erupted, visible across the city. Residents told The National News that the blasts were some of the worst they had heard. Kurdish air defenses intercepted some of the incoming drones. Others got through. There were no immediate reports of US casualties, but the ammunition warehouse was burning. The group that claimed the attack was Saraya Awliya al-Dam. In its statement, published by Kurdistan24, the group said it acted “in retaliation for the blood of the martyr, the leader Ali al-Husseini al-Khamenei, and in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The group operates under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. That coalition claimed 16 separate drone attacks against US and allied bases on February 28 alone, using dozens of drones across Iraq and the broader region, according to FDD’s Long War Journal. Here is what most coverage is missing. Saraya Awliya al-Dam is not some obscure insurgent cell operating from caves. It operates within the orbit of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella of predominantly Shia militias that the Iraqi government formally integrated into the country’s security apparatus in 2016. The PMF is an official Iraqi state institution. Its fighters draw government salaries. Its brigades have legal standing within Iraq’s military structure. And its most powerful component, Kataib Hezbollah, issued a statement before the war began calling on all fighters to prepare for “a potentially long war of attrition” against the United States. That quote was carried by AFP and confirmed by Asharq al-Awsat. After the strikes began, Kataib Hezbollah, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba all announced they were joining the fight. Kataib Hezbollah’s stated objective, reported by the Long War Journal, was explicit: “We must drag the US into a long war of attrition in which we leave no American presence in the region generally, especially in Iraq.” The United States withdrew its forces from most of Iraq in January 2026. The remaining American military presence is concentrated in the Kurdistan Region, primarily at Erbil. That withdrawal was supposed to reduce exposure. Instead, it created a single target-rich environment in a region surrounded by militias that are now operationally activated. And Iraq is being hit from both sides. On February 28, an unidentified party, likely the US or Israel, struck the Jurf al-Sakhar base in southern Iraq, killing two Kataib Hezbollah fighters and wounding five. Asaib Ahl al-Haq reported four of its members killed on March 1 in what it called a joint US-Israeli airstrike. Iraq closed its airspace. Warplanes and missiles flew over anyway. Dana Gas suspended natural gas exports from the Khor Mor field in Kurdistan, cutting power to the region. Protesters carrying militia flags surged toward the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The United States spent twenty years in Iraq. It spent $2 trillion. It lost 4,400 service members. It built a state. And embedded inside that state, drawing government salaries and carrying official designations, are the militias now launching drone swarms at American ammunition depots. The war the United States thought it left is the war that just came back. The only difference is that this time, the enemy was already inside the building. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans

11:05 AM · Mar 2, 2026