Kurdistan
U.S. soldiers and journalists inspect the rubble at a site of Iranian bombing, in Ain al-Asad air base, Anbar, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Qassim Abdul-Zahra)
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 120 employees of a Kurdistan-based logistic and trade company have been stranded for over a month at Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar province due to tensions between the US and Iran-backed forces in Iraq.
The base houses American troops and was recently targeted by Iranian ballistic missile strikes in retaliation for the US government’s January 3rd assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in the US strike.
While the Iranian government seems to have concluded its official retaliation, many still fear further reprisals on the part of Iraqi militias.
Because they work at the largest Iraqi airbase hosting US and Coalition troops, the employees of Dashti Sanat Logistics & General Trading Company fear they will be targeted by Iran-backed Shiite militias when they attempt to return to their homes in the Kurdistan Region.
The Dashti Sanat employees are from Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimani provinces of the Kurdistan Region. The majority are Kurdish, although six of them are Iraqi Christians. The company, which is headquartered in the Ankawa neighborhood of Erbil, provides logistical support to Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar and Habbaniya air base west of Baghdad.
Rudaw learned about the situation at Ain al-Asad through a Dashti Sanat employee who returned to Erbil just a few days before the most recent tensions between Washington and Tehran rose to a boiling point.
"Employees of the [Dashti Sanat] have been working for the company for three years now at the Habbaniya and Ain al-Assad bases," the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions to speaking to the media, told Rudaw. "Due to the most recent events happened between Iran and the US, 120 employees of the company working at the Ain al-Asad base have been stranded inside the base, not daring to return to the Kurdistan Region fearing Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces]."
Hashd al-Shaabi is the Arabic name for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of Shiite militias with strong ties to the Iranian government and a history of attacking US facilities in Iraq.
"My friends are pleading for help and wanting to safely return home," he added.
Rudaw contacted Dashti Sanat multiple times, but they were not ready to comment on the matter.
Concerning the Habbaniya base, where there is another group of Dashti Sanat employees, the source said, "I am not aware of their situation, nor do I have information on them."
The employee says the company's workers return home to take a break every three months, "but this time, they have been there for four months."
"They are panicked to return fearing that maybe they will face problems at Hashd al-Shaabi checkpoints if they know they are employees working at the US bases," he said.
He added that he regularly contacts his stranded co-workers, who tell him they live in the state of fear.
"There is a grave danger on the lives of our company's employees since the Iranian missile attack on the base," he said. ""They are pledging not to return to the base if they just return home," he said.
The Dashti Sanat employee also told Rudaw about a previous experience at Shiite-run checkpoints on his way back home from Ain al-Asad four months after the Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum in late September 2017.
"Following the Kurdistan Region's referendum, we were stuck in the base for four months. When we came back later, we were stopped at the Hashd al-Shaabi checkpoints," he said. "They were telling us 'you are calling for secession and not Iraqis'. They took my Iraqi passport from me and tore it apart. They insulted all of us and cursed the Kurdish leaders."
The Iraqi Parliament has vowed to follow up on the case of the stranded employees.
"There have not been such incidents in the past, but we are going to follow up on this matter," Nasir Harki, a Kurdish MP in Baghdad and member of the Defense and Security Committee, told Rudaw.
He said they would call on the company to provide details on the identity of the employees, "so we can speak with the Hashd al-Shaabi leaders and Americans in order for them return to the Kurdistan Region safely."
This piece was originally published in Sorani by Shkar Ahmed. Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali.
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