The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 8, 2020, the League of Revolutionaries, a recently formed Iraqi group that appears to be an Iranian proxy, released an approximately two-minute video threatening U.S. troops in Iraq.
The video included drone footage of the Iraqi Ain Al-Assad Airbase, which hosts U.S. troops in Anbar province targeted in the January 7 Iranian missile strike in retaliation for the January 3 U.S. airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, who had been commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, who had been deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The video, first posted on the group's Telegram channel, included a message addressing "the whole world." The message opens with Quran 3:200: "Oh you who believe! Be patient and excel in patience and remain steadfast and be careful of your duty to Allah, that you may be successful."[1]
It further explains that the previous release, which included footage of "the evil embassy, was not our first surveillance mission and will not be the last of them."[2] The video showed photos of Ain Al-Assad Airbase, describing it as the second-largest air base in Iraq and saying it housed American, British, and Iraqi troops.
Switching between several locations of the base, such as a runway and a warehouse of U.S. weapons. An aerial view shows what the video describes as the "housing compound." It also shows several military planes parked at the base.
The video shows footage, apparently filmed inside the base, of military planes landing and taking off. It concludes with a message that reads: "Our eyes are watching their movements and they will not achieve what they want."
The League of Revolutionaries claimed responsibility for the March 12 rocket attacks on the Taji military base north of Baghdad that killed three members of the U.S.-led international coalition in Iraq.[3]
[1] Source: Telegram/ sisiosba, April 8, 202
[2] See MEMRI JTTM report Iraqi Group Threatens U.S. Embassy In Baghdad: 'Our Eyes Are Monitoring Your Movements', April 3, 2020.
[3] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 8640 New Iranian Tactic: Unknown Group Issues Statement Of Responsibility For Attacks On U.S. Forces In Iraq March 16, 2020.
