Esmail Qaani met representatives of several of the gangs in Baghdad airport on January 29, less than 48 hours after Washington blamed the groups for the killing of three US soldiers at the Tower 22 outpost in Jordan, the sources say.
Qaani told the factions that by drawing American blood risked a heavy US response, including strikes on their senior commanders, destruction of key infrastructure or even a direct retaliation against Iran, sources say.
All but one group immediately acceded to Qaani’s request and the next day Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending attacks. One smaller but very active group, Nujaba, said it would continue attacks, arguing that US forces would only leave by force.
There have been no attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since February 4, compared to more than 20 in the two weeks before Qaani’s visit, part of a surge in violence from the groups in opposition to Israel’s war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
"Without Qaani’s direct intervention it would have been impossible to convince Kataib Hezbollah to halt its military operations to deescalate the tension," a senior commander in one of the Iran-aligned Iraqi gangs says.
Qaani did not leave the airport during the quick visit, fearing he could be targeted in the same location where his predecessor Qassem Soleimani
was killed four years earlier, a senior Iraqi security source says."The Iranians learned their lesson from the liquidation of Soleimani and did not want this to be repeated," the source says.
"Commander Qaani’s visit was successful, though not entirely, as not all Iraqi groups consented to de-escalate," a high-ranking Iranian security official says.