Iran-backed Shiites join Iraqis in Mosul fight, put U.S. commanders in bind

U.S.-backed Iraqi troops are fighting side by side with Shiite paramilitary forces backed by Iran for the first time in the campaign to take back Mosul, deepening U.S. fears that Tehran is claiming a greater role in the critical battle to oust Islamic State militants from Iraq’s second-largest city.

Over the past week, Iraqi government units have quietly advanced alongside units of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the large coalition of Iraqi paramilitaries comprising primarily militias supported by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. They are jointly advancing on the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, less than 50 miles west of Mosul, Pentagon officials confirmed Monday.

Those units are trying to cut off possible escape routes for Islamic State fighters between western Mosul and the Syrian border, as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to press into the city’s northern, eastern and southern borders.

But this mingling of Iraqi government troops and the Shiite militias could put U.S. commanders in the uncomfortable position of having to provide American air support for militias with clear links to the Iranian regime, something Washington fiercely opposes.

U.S. commanders have made clear that no American assets would be used to assist or reinforce advancing militias fighting under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a U.S. defense official told The Washington Times. That policy will remain in place despite the presence of Iraqi troops within the militia’s ranks, the official said.

It is unclear how U.S. forces would respond if the Iraqi troops embedded with the militias called for American airstrikes, since American assets are tasked with defending Iraqi and coalition forces.