Reports of US Marines Kidnapping Leader of Iraqi Parliamentary Bloc Are False

In the wake of US assassination at Baghdad airport of Iranian and Iraqi generals, there were reports (since denied by Iraqi authorities) that US Marines also “arrested” the head of Iraq’s second largest parliamentary bloc, one Hadi al-Amiri:

…it is now being reported that US Marines carried out arrest raids inside Baghdad, capturing high ranking Iraqi MP Hadi al-Amiri and militia leader Qais al-Khazali.

…

Amiri is the leader of Iraq’s second largest parliamentary bloc, as well as the head of the powerful Badr Brigade. In recent years he had been under consideration as a potential premier.

Khazali is the head of Qa’saib Ahl al-Haq, a substantial militia within the PMU in its own right.

As said Iraqi officials have since denied this, but there is another way to tell US troops did not kidnap al-Amiri — by the fact that US bases in Iraq right now don’t find themselves besieged by tens of thousands of Iraqi PMF troops.

This isn’t 2004 or 2007 anymore. The US has about 5,000-7,000 troops in Iraq, and Iraq has a semi-functioning military and a somewhat functioning government. It’s one thing to snipe Iraqi PMF troops and generals from the air, and an entirely different thing to send a convoy of Marines to kidnap one of Iraq’s key political leaders, through the streets of Baghdad.

That would have entailed running battles through the city, with a very questionable outcome. Even if the Imperial Marines somehow got out, the base they held al-Amiri at would find itself blockaded and under siege. In short, albeit I wouldn’t put it beyond the Trump gang to try a stunt like that, it’s simply beyond the US’ capability to get away with something like that in the present day.