Hezbollah Brigades vows to attack US forces ‘defending ISIS’ in Iraq
Jerusalem Post/March 21/16/
Hezbollah Brigades fighters in Iraq have threatened to attack the American soldiers stationed in the country, following the decision by the US army to send reinforcements to Iraq to support the international coalition in its fights against ISIS. In a statement released Sunday, the Iranian-backed organization active in Iraq and in the Syrian civil war, claimed: “the United States increasingly intervenes in Iraq’s issues with its presence in the Iraqi joint operations command.”While the US army says it is sending reinforcements to Iraq to help the international coalition vanquish ISIS, Hezbollah Brigades’ statement claimed the opposite. “ISIS, the stepdaughter of the Americans, is taking its last breaths, so the Americans dispatched their ground troops to protect the “clinically dead” body of ISIS,” Hezbollah Brigades’ statement read. “We have vanquished the American occupation with our quality and quantity in the past and we will continue attacking them, with our resources significantly increased. Iraq’s streets are still filled with the ruins of their vehicles that destroyed our explosive devices, and those injured by their soldiers are still hospitalized. “The occupation’s coward soldiers should understand that however protective their vehicles are, these vehicles will become an obstacle for them and they will burn to death inside them,” the statement read. Hezbollah Brigades, known in Arabic as Kata’ib Hezbollah, is not directly affiliated to the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah. However, according to American forces, the group received training and logistical aid from the Iranian Quds force as well as from Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah Brigades’ statement comes shortly after Colonel Steve Warren, the Spokesman of the US military operation against ISIS, announced Sunday that a group of Marines will reinforce the existing force in Iraq to support the international coalition’s efforts against ISIS.On Saturday, an American Marine troop who served at a coalition fire base near Makhmur in northern Iraq was killed after the base came under ISIS rocket fire. Several other Marines were wounded in this ISIS attack.
Kuwait expels 14 accused of Hezbollah links
Reuters, Dubai/Monday, 21 March 2016/Kuwait has expelled 11 Lebanese and three Iraqis suspected of belonging to Hezbollah, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Monday, nearly three weeks after the country joined other Gulf Arab states in designating the Lebanese Shiite group a terrorist organisation. Al-Qabas cited a security source as saying the 14 people had been expelled at the request of the state security service. The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) named Hezbollah, an Iranian-allied Islamist political movement that is fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war, a terrorist group on March 2. The GCC, which groups six Sunni-ruled states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar — had already imposed sanctions on Hezbollah in 2013. Al-Qabas said Kuwait’s state security body had prepared a list of “unwanted” Lebanese and Iraqis, including advisers to major companies, for deportation “in the public interest”. At the time of the GCC decision, Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani accused Hezbollah of recruiting young men to carry out terrorist attacks in Gulf states, smuggling in weapons and explosives, and inciting chaos, violence and political unrest. Hezbollah called the GCC decision “reckless and hostile” and blamed it on Saudi Arabia.
11 Hizbullah-Linked Lebanese Declared ‘Persona Non Grata’ in Kuwait
Naharnet/March 21/16/In a new series of expulsions, Kuwait has deported eleven Lebanese and three Iraqis after it has been proven that they belong to Hizbullah, the Kuwaiti al-Qabas daily reported on Monday. “They have been deported at the request of Kuwait’s state security apparatus,” the daily quoted a Kuwaiti security source as saying on condition of anonymity. “The Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passports Major General Mazen Al-Jarrah has formed a specialized team to follow up on the requests of the state security with regard to the deportation requests,” the source stated.
“The State Security has prepared a new list that includes names of Lebanese and Iraqis some of whom are general managers or senior advisers in reputable companies who were declared persona non grata,” it added. “They should be deported for Kuwait’s public interest,” it pointed out, adding that “their expulsion will prevent them form entering the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the future.” The move comes shortly after Kuwait announced last week that 1,100 Lebanese and Syrian nationals will be banned from renewing their residence permits for having direct links to Hizbullah. Several of the expelled were forced to leave the country within a period of one month while the more “dangerous ones” were requested to leave immediately. Last week, the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper said that Kuwaiti authorities have started to prepare lists of Hizbullah supporters to prevent their arrival in the country and others in anticipation of their deportation. These measures began a week ago shortly after the GCC decided to consider Hizbullah as terrorist. The GCC’s blacklisting of Hizbullah came in wake of Saudi Arabia’s decision in February to halt an army grant to the Lebanese army over the party’s harsh stances against the kingdom and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil’s abstention to vote in favor of Arab League resolutions condemning attacks against Riyadh’s embassy in Iran. The Arab League last week also voted in favor of labeling Hizbullah as a terrorist group, amid the abstention of Lebanon, Iraq, and Algeria. Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries have also issued travel advisories against Lebanon. A number of Lebanese expatriates living in these countries have also been deported.