TEHRAN (AFP) ― An Iraqi Shiite militia leader and lawmaker has credited Tehran and a powerful Iranian general with saving the Baghdad government during last summer’s offensive by Islamic State group militants.

Hadi al-Ameri, a former minister who commands the Badr militia, said support from Iran and Gen. Qassem Suleimani had been crucial after Iraqi government forces collapsed in the face of the IS assault.

“If it were not for the cooperation of the Islamic republic of Iran and Gen. Suleimani, we would not today have a government headed by Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad,” Ameri told a memorial service south of Tehran Monday for an Iranian officer killed in Iraq last month.

The memorial was for Iranian Revolutionary Guards Major Gen. Hamid Taghavi, killed by IS fighters in the Iraqi city of Samarra last month. Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force ― the foreign wing of the Revolutionary Guards ― was also present at the memorial.


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com