A member of Iraqi security forces inspects the site of an explosion in Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 19, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

The secretary general of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba resistance group has held US occupation forces responsible for the upsurge in terrorist attacks by Daesh Takfiri terrorists across the country, saying the current situation proves that terror outfits are all tools in the hands of hegemonic powers.

The rise in criminal activities of Daesh sleeper cells, behind which the occupier is standing, is yet another evidence that this terrorist organization is nothing but a miserable tool in the hands of global arrogance. We call upon our brave brethren serving within the ranks of security forces and Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) not to be lenient and to mount preemptive strikes against Daesh, Akram al-Kaabi wrote in a post published on his Twitter page on Monday.

Kaabi said the current developments sound the alarm for Iraqi security forces and anti-terror PMU fighters, better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, stressing that Iraqi forces should target terrorist hideouts in northern and eastern provinces of Kirkuk and Diyala.

We should not overlook vicious conspiracies aimed at diverting Iraqi forces’ attention away from the present state of affairs and plunging the country into spiraling crises, the Harakat al-Nujaba chief noted.

On October 27, Daesh carried out an attack on a military base in Rashidiya, in the northern outskirts of Baghdad, shortly after the terror group launched a series of deadly raids in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahuddin.

An unidentified security source told Iraq’s Shafaq news agency at the time that Daesh militants carried an attack on 11th Iraqi Army Division within the area between Deraa al-Fayyad village and Abdullah al-Fayyad village (al-Mabazel).

The Iraqi Air Force intervened to repel the assault, launching several airstrikes against the terrorists, the source added, without elaborating on further details.

The attack came one day after Daesh elements killed 14 civilians and injured 15 others in the village of al-Hawasha, near the town of Muqdadiya, in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province.

Back in July, US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi declared that the US mission in Iraq will transition from combat to advisory role by the end of the year.

The delegations decided, following recent technical talks, that the security relationship will fully transition to a training, advising, assisting, and intelligence-sharing role, and that there will be no US forces with a combat role in Iraq by December 31, 2021, Baghdad and Washington said in a joint statement on July 26.

The agreement, which has effectively given a mere new name to the US military presence in Iraq, has enraged Iraqi resistance groups, which have played a significant role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq in 2017.

Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.

Iraq declared victory over Daesh in December 2017 after a three-year counter-terrorism military campaign, which also had the support of neighboring Iran.

The terror outfit’s remnants, though, keep staging sporadic attacks across Iraq, attempting to regroup and unleash fresh violence.

Daesh has intensified its terrorist attacks in Iraq since January 2020, when the United States assassinated top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Hashd al-Sha’abi deputy commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, near Baghdad International Airport.