U.S. Takes a Risk: Old Iraqi Enemies Are Now Allies

[TomSea]

U.S. Takes a Risk: Old Iraqi Enemies Are Now Allies

By Margaret Coker
May 11, 2018


Members of the Badr Organization, a Shiite movement with deep ties to Iran, praying in Hilla, Iraq, last month. Two leaders of the group who are poised to play key roles in the next Iraqi government want military help from the United States.CreditIvor Prickett for The New York Times

MOSUL, Iraq — Iraq’s interior minister, Qassim al-Araji, has a troubled history with the United States. He was detained twice by the Americans at the notorious Camp Bucca prison during the Iraq war and held for 23 months, accused of smuggling Iranian-made bombs that had become effective killers of American troops.

As a former commander of an Iranian-backed militia, his loyalties are open to question. But when he met with the United States ambassador last year, he had a surprising message: He and other former Shiite militants wanted the Americans to stay. Iraq needed their help, he said, to stabilize the country and combat the threat of the Islamic State.

He even jokingly praised the superiority of American jails over Iraqi ones. “You have some things to teach us,” he told the American ambassador, Douglas J. Silliman.

Read more at: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/world/middleeast/iraq-iran-election-enemies.html?smid=tw-share

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What a funny game.