Armed Clash Between Iraqi Police and Iran-backed Militias in Baghdad

According to an Iraqi security official, following an armed clash on Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad that resulted in three injuries, police have surrounded the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia group and arrested one of its members. The militia group known as Kata'ib Hezbollah is part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that fought alongside the Iraqi army against the Islamic State group. An Iraqi Ministry of Interior official, who requested anonymity, stated that the armed clash occurred after a police patrol stopped a vehicle in Baghdad, and immediately a convoy carrying members of Kata'ib Hezbollah arrived. The official added, 'The individuals in these five vehicles began shooting, and the police officers responded with return fire. In this skirmish, two police officers and one member of Kata'ib Hezbollah were injured.' The official said that police quickly surrounded the group's headquarters, 'where the fighters had taken refuge,' and closed one of the main streets in the city. According to him, after the arrest of 'the individual responsible for shooting at the police,' the siege was lifted. AFP adds that such armed clashes in Baghdad have been rare since the end of sectarian fighting about ten years ago. In 2014, following a call from a prominent Shia cleric to confront the Islamic State's advance, the militia group Kata'ib Hezbollah joined the PMU, which was commanded under Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Iraq. The Iraqi government announced a complete victory over the Islamic State group last December after a series of difficult and bloody operations in which PMU forces also fought alongside the Iraqi army. The militia group Kata'ib Hezbollah operates independently of the central Iraqi government and fights alongside government forces in the Syrian civil war. On Sunday, the group's forces in eastern Syria, where battles against Islamic State fighters continue, were targeted in an airstrike attributed to the Israeli army. Israel has repeatedly emphasized that it will do everything possible to prevent the military presence of Iran and its supported forces in Syrian territory.