U.S. manufactured tanks have reportedly ended up in the arsenal of fighters from an umbrella organization of mostly Iran-allied Shiite militias in Iraq that have expressed hostility towards troops from the United States
The global jihad is taken seriously by unrelenting jihadists, but was not even acknowledged by the previous Obama Administration. Now Iran has been given resources through the disastrous Iranian deal to expand its powers and work toward its dream of a revived Persian empire.
Iran has been expanding its proxy wars throughout the Middle East after the fall of the Islamic State. Last year, the human rights group Amnesty International “obtained government data showing that the U.S. Army had lost track of more than $1 billion worth of weapons and other equipment destined for local allies combating ISIS.”
America returning to its place as a beacon of democracy in the world under the Trump Administration is not only good news, but an urgent necessity in the face of Islamic supremacist and jihadi expansion, and now, brazen provocation against US forces in Iraq.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated “that Iran and its rapidly expanding regional power, as well as its nuclear program, would be the major focus” of discussions between him and Trump on Monday.
“Report: Anti-American Iran-Allied Shiite Militias Take Control of U.S. Tanks in Iraq,” by Edwin Mora, Breitbart, March 6, 2018:
U.S. manufactured tanks have reportedly ended up in the arsenal of fighters from an umbrella organization of mostly Iran-allied Shiite militias in Iraq that have expressed hostility towards troops from the United States, according to an audit by the top inspector general (IG) for overseas operations.
Some militias from the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces/Units (PMF/U), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, have threatened American troops in recent months, urging the United States to entirely withdraw from Iraq now that Baghdad has declared defeat over the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
Although some PMU fighters fought alongside the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, some of those Shiite fighters may have American blood on their hands having clashed with the United States armed forces following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In a quarterly report issued to Congress, the Lead Inspector General for Overseas Contingency Operation (LIG-OCO), which covers activities by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the U.S. Department of State (DoS), and the U.S. Agency for International Development, auditors found:
This quarter [October 1, 2-17 thru December 31, 2017] , the DoS acknowledged that some U.S.-provided military equipment sent to support the mission, including as many as nine M1 Abrams tanks, had fallen into the hands of Iranian-backed militias that fought against ISIS in Iraq. The DoS pressed the Iraqi government to prioritize the return of defense articles provided by the United States as designated in the sale agreements.…
PMF units had obtained as many as nine M1 Abrams tanks. These tanks, originally provided by the United States to the Iraqi Army, included some tanks seized by the PMF from ISIS after the fall of Mosul and the second battle of Tikrit.
However, seven of the nine tanks have already been recovered, notes Foreign Policy (FP)…..