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| Iraq |
| Airstrikes Target Iraq’s Disputed Territories and Sunni Heartland, Not the Shia-Dominated South |
| 2026-03-22 |
| [NationalContext] From Jurf al-Sakhar and Baghdad to al-Qaim, Mosul, Kirkuk, and Tuz Khurmatu, the strike campaign has widened sharply since late February. But even as it has expanded, it still concentrates on the militias’ forward military infrastructure in Iraq’s disputed north, western border belt, and Sunni heartland, while avoiding the deep southern Shia core where these factions retain their densest political and social base. The expanding strike campaign against Iran-aligned militias in Iraq is not random. Even as the map has widened since late February, its geographic logic remains remarkably consistent. The attacks are still concentrated on militia deployments, headquarters, checkpoints, command nodes, and logistics infrastructure in Iraq’s northern, western, and disputed belts, while the deep Shia south remains outside the strike map. By faction, Kataib Hezbollah and its linked structures appear to be the most heavily targeted militia family, especially through repeated strikes on its Brigade 45 network in Anbar, later hits on its linked Brigade 63 structures in Kirkuk and Salah al-Din, and additional Kataib Hezbollah-linked sites in Baghdad, Fallujah, Jurf al-Sakhar, and Tuz Khurmatu. It is followed by Hashd al-Shabak, or Quwat Sahl Nineveh, whose Brigade 30 positions across the Nineveh Plains came under repeated attack, and by Kataib Imam Ali, whose Brigade 40 was repeatedly struck across Kirkuk and Nineveh. What the updated map shows is not a nationwide air war, but a calibrated one. The campaign has widened into Baghdad, Babil, and Wasit, and has touched a broader range of militias than in its first phase. But it still stops short of Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Najaf, and Karbala. In other words, it is hitting the militias’ exposed operational arc, not their deepest political home ground. THE GEOGRAPHY IS WIDENING, BUT NOT IN EVERY DIRECTION The earlier phase of the campaign centered on places like Jurf al-Sakhar, Akashat, al-Qaim, Muqdadiya, Bartella, Qayyarah, Rashidiya, Dibis, and Baiji. The newer map adds repeated strikes in Baghdad, more sites in Salah al-Din and Kirkuk, and further pressure on the Mosul area, the Nineveh Plains, and the Syria-facing border zone in Anbar. That expansion matters, but it has not erased the campaign’s underlying pattern. The militias being hit are still overwhelmingly deployed in mixed, militarized, or frontier spaces. That includes Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Hashd al-Shabak, Kataib Imam Ali, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, Saraya al-Khorasani, Badr-linked formations, Turkmen PMF units, Kataib Jund al-Imam, Risaliyun, Fawj Amerli, Waad Allah, Kataib Babiliyoun, Haras Nainawa, Liwa Salah al-Din, and mixed PMF command structures. Baghdad has now clearly entered the map. So have some central Iraqi belts. But widening is not the same as becoming nationwide. The strikes have edged into the capital and its approaches, but they still avoid the deep southern provinces where the militias’ political offices, patronage networks, leadership environments, and social base are strongest. More at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |