A-Sharq al-Awsat reports Hamas will be fighting along the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah and Shi’ite Houthi militias in Mosul and Kirkuk.
By i24news
Iran is planning to have Hamas fighters join the battle for the liberation of Mosul, Iraq, the Jerusalem Post reports, citing A-Sharq al-Awsat.
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at Islamic-State militant positions, near Mosul – Photo: JM LOPEZ (AFP/FILE)
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has been occupied by the Islamic State group since July 2014. Hamas would be fighting along with soldiers from the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah as well as Shi’ite Houthi militias, the report says.
Iran will also deploy Hamas to try help liberate Kirkuk in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the report adds. Kirkuk, which has been in Kurdish hands since last June, is a key city in the area and its recapture would destabilize Iraq’s Kurdish region, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The Iranians see the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq as a serious competitor for its standing in the country, the report says.
Smoke billows from the Khubbaz oil field near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, on February 2, 2015, after Peshmerga forces and police retook the area from Islamic State group – Photo: Marwan Ibrahim (AFP/File)
A-Sharq al-Awsatcited a Peshmerga commander who described the arrival of Hezbollah forces in south Kirkuk over the last few days. According to the commander, the Hezbollah units brought with them heavy weaponry and missiles.
He told the paper that Iran wants to take Mosul and Kirkuk in order to open a transport route for smuggling weapons and soldiers into Syria and Lebanon.
(Staff with AFP)
View original i24news publication at:
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/111032-160425-iran-to-dispatch-hamas-fighters-to-battle-for-mosul-report
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