ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday called for an investigation into the recent attacks on international targets in Iraq. This comes one day after Sadr called on paramilitary network the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) to prevent some of its armed groups from conducting rocket attacks and assassinations in Iraq, saying the country will otherwise shift into the unknown. In a tweet, Sadr says that "due to the seriousness of the security situation that threatens the present and future of the country, and in the midst of security breaches that threaten the prestige of the Iraqi state, and pose a direct threat to the life and fate of our dear people, we find it an urgent interest to form a committee of a security, military and parliamentary nature to investigate the violations." Following months of heightened tensions between the US and Iran, rocket attacks on US infrastructure and personnel in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and elsewhere in Iraq have become increasingly frequent. The targeting of convoys belonging to Iraqi companies transporting for the US-led coalition inside Iraq has become an almost daily occurrence in central Iraq. "The results of the investigation should be announced to the public opinion and within a specific time limit so that the necessary legal and executive measures are taken in this regard," added Sadr, noting that "if this is not achieved, the government will be negligent in its work to restore prestige and impose security." A number of recent attacks on US and Western targets in Iraq are believed to have been conducted by the Iran-backed Islamic Front for Resistance inside Iraq (al-Muqawama), a group whose aim is to force US troops to withdraw from the country. Units of the group have claimed responsibility for some previous attacks.
