Iran Deploys Quds Force To Save Iraq's Shia-Led Regime

This video shows a Sunni tribal fighter explaining how the capture of 2 Iranians attempting to infiltrate into Fallujah.

The threat of Sunnis eclipsing the power of its Shiite-dominated Arab ally presents Iran with the biggest security and strategic challenge it has faced since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Iran deployed Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq, according to Iranian security officials.

Iran has invested considerable financial, political and military resources over the past decade to ensure Iraq emerged from U.S. war as a strong Shiite-led state. The so-called Shiite crescent—stretching from Iran to Iraq, Lebanon and Syria—was forged largely as a result of this effort.

Two Guards' units, dispatched from Iran's western border provinces on Wednesday, were tasked with protecting Baghdad and the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf, these security sources said.

Syria's conflict has turned Iraq into an important operational base for Iran to aid another ally, the Assad regime, which is dominated by an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Shiite militia trained by Iran, weapons and cash have flowed from Iran to Syria via Iraq.

"Iraq is viewed as a vital priority in Iran's foreign policy in the region and they go to any length to protect this interest," said Roozbeh Miribrahimi, an independent Iran expert based in New York.

Iran has also positioned troops on full alert along its border with Iraq and has given clearance to its air force to bomb rebel forces, according to an Iranian army general.

The two IRGC battalions that moved to Iraq on Wednesday were shifted from the Iranian border provinces of Urumieh and Lorestan, the Iranian security officials said.

Revolutionary Guards units that serve in Iran's border provinces are the most experienced fighters in guerrilla warfare because of separatist ethnic uprisings in those regions. IRGC commanders dispatched to Syria also often come from those provinces as well.

Iran was also considering the transfer to Iraq of Shiite volunteer troops in Syria, if the initial deployments fail to turn the tide of battle in favor of Mr. Maliki's government, the Iranian security officials said.

MAISH

This is the response to the Shia-led Iraqi government’s accusation that the current insurgency is conducted or at least lead by "DAISH" which is the Arabic acronym for "ISIS" (The Islamic State Of Iraq and Sham).

In all actuality, the current insurgency is made of the Sunni Tribal Fighters, ex-Saddam military personnel and a few other Islamic movements. 

ISIS holds only a very small percentage of the total armed Sunni personnel.

The only way that this insurgency could have accomplished this through Blitzkrieg, over a wide geographic front, conquer and hold major cities and terrain, could only be attributed to sophisticated and conventional military planning by ex-Iraqi Army Officers.

ISIS doesn’t have the numbers nor the conventional expertise to conduct such operations. They were soundly routed by Al-Nusra Front and it’s allies in Syria.

I addition, ISIS in Iraq were defeated in the last round they fought with the Iraqi Tribal Fighters and SAHWA Forces - before the American Occupation Troops Withdrew - and the general Sunni population have become standoffish with them.

If this operation is to succeed in Liberating the Sunni’s from Maliki’s tyranny and his Shia militias and death squads, the majority Sunni civilian population + ex-Saddam military personnel + the Tribal Fighters had to unite and coordinate their operations.

This is why it has been so fast and successful and not because ISIS played a major role or led the insurgency.

MAISH: "Iran’s Militias In Iraq and Sham/Syria"