Pro-government Syrian forces moved into the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin on Tuesday despite warnings from Turkey, which halted the irregular troops’ advance with artillery fire, like reported by egyptindependent.com.

Convoys of pro-Syrian government militia members were seen in video passing a Kurdish YPG militia checkpoint into Afrin.

“The Syrian government has responded to the call of the duty and sent military units on this day … to deploy along the border and take part in defending the unity of Syria’s territory and borders,” YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud said in a statement.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said hundreds of pro-Syrian government forces had entered Afrin.

The pro-government troops appeared to largely consist of National Defense Forces (NDF) units, a paramilitary militia organized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

On Monday, state media and Kurdish sources said the two sides were negotiating for pro-regime troops to help defend against the Turkish military and its rebel allies.

The troop movements raised the prospect of direct clashes between the Syrian regime and Turkey, which alongside rebel allies launched an offensive against the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria a month ago.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said artillery fire pushed back “Shiite militia” and “the case is closed for now.”

However, it was unclear if the pro-Syrian government militia forces had fully pulled back.  The YPG denied this.

Details of a deal between the Assad regime and Kurds are scant.  Kurdish sources have said that any deal would be limited to pro-Syrian government forces moving into border areas, essentially acting as buffer to an expanded Turkish offensive in Afrin.

Any agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government further complicates the multi-sided conflict in northern Syria involving Kurdish forces, the Syrian government, rebel factions, Turkey, the United States, Iran and Russia.

In a complicated web of rivalries and alliances, the deal in Afrin means that Iran-backed pro-regime militia are cooperating with US-backed Syrian Kurds against NATO member Turkey and its rebel allies.

Turkey has warned that it will hit back at pro-Syrian government forces if they moved into Afrin, which is controlled by the YPG militia. Ankara considers the YPG to be a terrorist organization tied to Kurdish rebels fighting a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Earlier on Tuesday, Erdogan said Russia had intervened to block Damascus from entering Afrin and that the Turkish military would quickly expand its assault on Afrin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Turkey to enter into direct negotiations with the Syrian regime, something that would be hard for Ankara to stomach.

“We recognize Turkey’s concerns regarding the current situation in Syria, and we recognize the Kurds’ aspirations,” Lavrov said. “I am confident that Turkey’s lawful interests of security provision can be implemented and satisfied through direct dialogue with Syria’s government.”

Iran and Russia are key backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Turkey has been one of the main backers of rebels seeking to oust Assad. But over the past two years, Ankara has focused on thwarting Syrian Kurdish gains and cooperated with Tehran and Moscow to try to end a civil war now in its seventh year.

The Syrian Kurds have had a tacit relationship with Damascus since it withdrew forces from parts of northern Syria in 2012 to focus on fighting rebels seeking to oust the Assad regime.

Further east, the YPG militia is a key component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls around 25 percent of Syrian territory after pushing back the “Islamic State” (IS) over the past three years.

Washington’s support of the SDF has been a major source of tensions between the United States and Turkey.

Two Islamic State leaders, among others, were killed in an airstrike launched by the U.S.-led Coalition in east of Diyala, the military intelligence department announced according to iraqinews.com.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the department said, “based on accurate information and in coordination with the Coalition, an airstrike targeted an IS rest house of the so-called Diyala State, north of Hamreen lake.”

The airstrike, according to the statement, “left several IS leaders killed including a leader who was in charge of the administrative affairs in the province and his deputy.”

Earlier this month, Sadeq al-Husseini, the security committee of Diyala provincial council, said in remarks that an IS military emir succumbed to death after he was injured in as an airstrike targeted a rest house in in al-Waqf basin, northeast of Baquba.

Thousands of IS militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition, was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group.

In December, Abadi announced full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members. However, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.

The war against IS has so far displaced at least five million people. Thousands of others fled toward neighboring countries including Syria, Turkey and other European countries, since IS emerged to proclaim its self-styled “caliphate”.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that several dozen Russian citizens and citizens of other countries in the former Soviet space had been wounded in recent clashes in Syria and were being treated in Russian hospitals, like reported by reuters.com.

Sources told Reuters last week that as many as 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked private military contractor had been either killed or injured fighting in Syria earlier in February in a clash with the U.S.-led coalition.

The incident showed Moscow was more deeply involved in Syria militarily than it has said, and risked being drawn into direct confrontation with the United States there.

The Foreign Ministry had previously said that five Russians nationals may have been killed in the same clash and dismissed media reports of a higher death toll as “disinformation”.

On Tuesday, it provided more detail.

“During a recent military clash, in which servicemen from the Russian Federation did not participate in any way… citizens from Russia and CIS (former Soviet) countries died,” the ministry said in a statement. “There were also about several dozen wounded.”

It said that the wounded had been helped to return to Russia where they were being treated in various medical institutions.

“As has already been noted, there are Russian citizens in Syria who have travelled there on their own initiative and with different aims,” the ministry said.

“It is not the place of the Foreign Ministry to assess the legality and legitimacy of their decisions.”

Since the ouster of late Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and especially since the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s intervention in Yemen to uphold the legitimacy of the country’s internationally recognised government, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, has tried to take advantage of the security vacuum in some areas of Yemen, a UAE newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday, like reported by wam.ae.

“AQAP, widely recognised as the global terrorist group’s most active branch, has carried out a series of attacks against civilian and military targets in Yemen, despite itself suffering debilitating losses as a result of hundreds of US drone strikes,” said Gulf News.

The paper added, “Of late, the biggest gains against the terrorist group on the ground have been made as a result of ground operations by elite UAE-trained Yemeni forces, with air support from the coalition, especially the UAE Air Force.

“In the most recent development on the ground, hundreds of UAE-backed Yemeni troops have pushed into a long and rugged valley west of Al Mukalla city, the capital of the Hadramaut province, which has long been a sanctuary for Al Qaida militants. Training and support from the UAE have allowed special Yemeni army units, such as the Hadhrami Elite Forces, to gain control of the entrance points, besiege the militants, and advance by clearing booby traps and landmines, and by warding off ambushes. The current offensive, codenamed Al Faisal Operation, is being carried out across three main axes in the area, backed by an intense aerial bombing campaign.”

It further added, “The UAE’s approach to security in Yemen, and the region in general, is marked by a clear identification of the threats. On the one hand, there is the danger posed by extremist terrorism of the kind propagated by groups such as AQAP and Daesh; on the other, the expansionist policies of regional powers such as Iran through armed proxies, like Al Houthis, to spread instability and sow sectarian discord.

“In April 2016, the UAE launched a large-scale operation against AQAP and other terrorist organisations, which resulted in significantly reducing acts of terror committed in various Yemeni governorates. It enabled authorities on the ground to restore essential infrastructure services, illustrated by the reopening of Port Mukalla in the Hadramaut governorate, which is a lifeline for economic activity in Yemen.”

“The essence of UAE’s efforts is also that the success of any anti-terror and anti-militia ground operation is followed by a full-blown humanitarian response, spearheaded by agencies such as the Emirates Red Crescent, thereby ensuring the UAE always wins the battle for hearts and minds,” concluded the Dubai-based daily.

Al Faisal Operation was successful in limiting Al Qaeda’s presence in Yemen on Sunday as the army continues its campaign against key outposts, like reported by thenational.ae

Dozens of Al Qaeda members were killed and many more captured in Yemen as the army looks to expel the terrorists from key outposts in the Hadramawt province.

This comes as part of a Saudi-led coalition campaign — which includes the UAE — looking to drive terrorists from eastern Yemen and areas considered Al Qaeda strongholds.

Gen Faraj Al Bahsani, the commander in charge of the campaign in Mukalla, announced on Sunday the Al Faisal Operation has been successful in driving out the militants from the province.

The operation, which was launched last Friday by special forces trained by the UAE, was successful in securing the key province, which shares an almost 600 kilometre border with Saudi Arabia and is home to several key coastal cities to the south.

Two soldiers were killed on Saturday in the offensive, which targets the Wadi Al Masini and Wadi Al Amad — both in the vast province of Hadramawt and home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The two valleys are critical to control over Yemen’s southern coastline.

Col Saddam Abu Saleh, one of the operation commanders, told The National the army stormed the main Al Qaeda stronghold in the valleys through air strikes and a ground offensive.

“We still must deal with the western corridor in the area where the terrorists deployed a number of explosive cars and planted thousands of landmines to hinder our progress,” he said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula largely withdrew from Mukalla in Hadramawt in 2016 when government and Emirati soldiers seized the city that had been used by the extremists to amass a fortune amid the chaos of civil war.

“Dozens of the terrorists were killed and dozens other arrested by our forces. Among those were Ethiopians and Yemenis who used to be soldiers in the Yemeni army as indicated by the identification we found on them,” said Colonel Sadam.

AQAP militants were highly equipped with heavy weaponry such as anti-tank guided missiles and mortars, said Colonel Khaled Al Zubaidi, another commander involved in the operation.

Colonel Khaled Al Zubaidi told The National the coalition was able to target “enormous ammunition storehouses which were destroyed by the Arab Coalition jets air strikes”.

Sky News Arabia said the coalition along with Yemeni forces killed 38 Al Qaeda members.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in the Yemen war since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition joined the government’s fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The United States, the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen, has ramped up a long-running campaign against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

Mukalla was the most populated Yemeni city under direct Al Qaeda control from 2015 to 2016, when the army and its regional military allies seized control of the port city.

Number of paramilitary personnel killed by Islamic State members in southwest of Kirkuk have reached 21 victims, sources were quoted saying on Monday, like reported by iraqinews.com.

Troops of the Federal Police and al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) raided, early today, al-Saadouniya village after combing the region, the sources told DPA. The forces then withdrew after finding more victims, reaching 21. Most of them were beheaded. Seven military vehicles were burnt.

Iraqi troops, according to the sources, are still looking for the militants in order to reach the abducted personnel in Hawija.

Speaking to Baghdad Today website, a security source said IS members disguised as Federal Police personnel in a fake checkpoint.

On Sunday evening, news reports said security troops lost communication with 24 paramilitary personnel in addition to losing track of eight vehicles in Hawija. Other reports indicated confrontations between PMFs and Islamic State members in southwest of the province.

Last week, Kirkuk Governor Rakan al-Jabouri warned that Islamic State still poses a serious threat to the security of the province, saying that the militants are still active in Kirkuk’s remote areas and farms around villages.

As many as 3,298 civilians were killed and 4,781 others were wounded in 2017, excluding Anbar civilian casualty figures for November and December, which are not available, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a report in December.

The Syrian army could enter the Kurdish-held enclave in Afrin within the next two days after the Kurds agreed to let the Damascus government repel a Turkish offensive, Reuters news agency reported on Sunday, citing a senior Kurdish official, according to egyptindependent.com.

The agreement, supposedly brokered by Russia, further complicates the conflict in Northern Syria as rivalries and alliances among Kurdish forces, the Syrian government, rebel factions, Turkey, the United States and Russia become more entangled.

What the Kurds said

• The agreement allows paramilitaries allied with the Syrian government to enter Afrin to support the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fend off Turkish forces, the DPA news agency reported, citing an anonymous source.
• Badran Jia Kurd, an advisor to the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria, told Reuters Syrian army troops would deploy along some border positions in the Afrin region.
• Jia Kurd said the agreement with Damascus on Afrin was strictly military with no wider political arrangements, but added: “We can cooperate with any side that lends us a helping hand in light of barbaric crimes and the international silence.”
• Jia Kurd said there is opposition to the deal that could prevent it from being implemented.

What does this mean? The Damascus government and Kurdish forces each hold more territory than any other side in the Syrian civil war. Their cooperation could be pivotal as to how the conflict unfolds.

Who are they repelling? Ankara launched an air and ground offensive on the Afrin region in January against the YPG militia. It views the YPG as terrorists with links to an armed insurrection in Turkey. For the Turkish government, attacking Afrin is about assuring geopolitical interests and domestic security.

Are Kurdish goals compatible with Syria’s? President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the YPG have mostly avoided direct conflict. However, they have occasionally clashed and have very different visions for Syria’s future. Both believe in a possibility for a long-term agreement, but Assad has said he wants to take back the whole country.

How powerful are the Kurds? Since the onset of Syria’s conflict in 2011, the YPG and its allies have established three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin near the Turkish border. Their sphere of influence has expanded as they seized territory from the “Islamic State” group with the help of the US. However, Washington opposes the Kurds’ political ambitions, as does the Syrian government.

What happens next? Jia Kurd has said forces are to arrive in two days, but the deal has not been confirmed.

Macron has demanded Iran’s ballistic missile programme us placed under international surveillance as the French president looks to take a tougher stance on Tehran, like reported by express.co.uk

Macron said the use of “Iranian-linked missiles in Yemen and Syria” needed to be addressed.

His call comes as the Iran nuclear deal is precariously poised following Donald Trump’s threats to scrap the agreement.

The French leader said Paris, one of the signatories of the 2015 deal, wants to preserve the accord because nothing better has been tabled.

He said the international community needs “to put Iran under surveillance over its ballistic missiles”.

The French president said: “It’s indispensable for the security of the region and so we need a mechanism of sanctions and control adapted to that.”

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said last week the West must ensure the nuclear deal succeeds before trying to negotiate other issues.

Last month Donald Trump warned he will pull the deal – which regulates the way Tehran produces nuclear power – if the European countries involved don’t fix issues within the agreement.

The US president said: “Fix the deals disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw.”

Trump’s eleventh hour warning came after he agreed to waive key sanctions the US lifted as part of the deal.

The waiver must be issued every 120 days to keep the sanctions, which the US president thinks are too lenient, from kicking back in.

He said: “I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. This is a last chance.

“In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.

“And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately.”

A day later, Mr Macron pressed the importance of maintaining the accord in a conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Elysee Palace said in a statement: “The president spoke of the importance of preserving the Iran nuclear deal, and the necessity for all parties to the agreement to respect the commitments they made.”

Were Iran to attack Israel, Moscow would stand by the Jewish state’s side, a Russian official said this week, days after an Iranian-made drone infiltrated Israel from Syria and was shot down by the IDF, timesofisrael.com.

“In the case of aggression against Israel, not only will the United States stand by Israel’s side — Russia, too, will be on Israel’s side,” Russian Deputy Ambassador to Israel Leonid Frolov said. “Many of our countrymen live here in Israel, and Israel in general is a friendly nation, and therefore we won’t allow any aggression against Israel.”

Still, in a wide-ranging interview conducted at the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Monday, Frolov cast doubt on Israel’s assertion that Iran was behind the drone incursion and suggested Israeli intelligence agencies establish contacts with its Syrian counterparts.

He also predicted that Israelis would not be happy about the forthcoming American peace plan, and dismissed the outrage against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s condemnation of Israel as a European colonial project with no connection to Judaism.

“We certainly support Israel’s right to defend itself, and the actions of Israeli pilots were entirely correct,” he said of Saturday’s flareup in the north, during which an Israeli fighter jet was shot down by a Syrian anti-aircraft battery and two pilots were injured.

“We certainly regret that in this incident two Israeli pilots were injured,” Frolov said. “On behalf of the Russian embassy I am wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded pilots.”

On Saturday morning, an Israeli Apache helicopter shot down the unmanned aerial vehicle a minute and a half after it had entered Israeli airspace. In retaliation for the infiltration, the Israeli Air Force attacked several targets in Syria, severely damaging the regime’s air defense systems.

Russia is a staunch ally of both Iran and Syria, assisting both countries in their efforts to help the Syrian regime fend off rebels trying to bring down President Bashar Assad in a bloody seven-year civil war.

“Syria is a sovereign country and the Syrian people, too, have the right to self-defense,” Frolov said.

Israel has repeatedly vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent Iran’s efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria. Jerusalem, which has reportedly attacked Iranian targets in Syria, and Moscow have established a so-called deconfliction mechanism to avoid clashes in the skies of the war-torn country.

Israel’s demand that Iran not be allowed to establish a strong military presence in Syria is “absolutely legitimate,” Frolov said.

Moscow agrees that Iranian forces must leave the country as soon as the bloody civil war ends and a new democratic government is established, he said. In the meantime, however, anti-regime rebels — or “terrorists,” as Frolov called them — are trying to destabilize Syria, prompting Assad to invite Iranian forces to help defeat them, he said. Russia is convinced that all foreign military personnel will leave the country once calm has been reestablished.

In seeking to prevent Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, Israel should “have established closer ties with Syrian secret services,” he added. “Israel is surrounded by many enemy states. But that doesn’t prevent the Israeli leadership from announcing that their secret services have contacts with counterparts from Saudi Arabia or Qatar, for instance.”

Though he agreed that Israel was well within its rights to shoot done the drone, Frolov cast doubt on its assertion that Iran was behind the incursion. Rather, he suggested that anti-regime forces launched the drone in order to trigger an Israeli attack on the forces loyal to Assad.

“I am sure that every UAV that intrudes into Israeli airspace needs to be shot down. It would be even better to bring down the UAV [without destroying it] and to see who created it, to whom it belongs,” he said, speaking in Russian through an interpreter.

What would the Iranians gain from sending a UAV to Israel? After all, the Iranians know it would be shot down

“One can accuse the Iranians of many things, but they’re not stupid,” he went on. “They know what would happen if they sent a drone over to Israel. No one doubts that Israel has the capability to defeat Iranian military forces in Syria. But we don’t want to assume, without proof, that the Iranians in Syria are insane.”

The IDF stated unequivocally that the drone — a replica of the American RQ-170 — was built and piloted by Iranians troops stationed in Russia. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on Wednesday told the Security Council that “Iranian-backed militias” were behind the drone attack, which she described as an “egregious and unprompted escalation” and a “wake-up call for all of us.”

But Frolov, a soft spoken, gray-haired veteran diplomat who previously served in Tripoli and Ramallah, adamantly disagreed with the Israeli assertion, saying that the photos of the destroyed drone published in Israel in no way proved that Iran has behind Saturday’s launch.

“I don’t know who did it,” he said, adding that rebel groups are present in the location where the UAV was launched. “It would fit these gangs to make provocations in order for Israel to attack positions in Syria. We always need to ask ourselves who gains from this. What would the Iranians gain from sending a UAV into Israel? After all, the Iranians know it would be shut down and afterwards the Israelis would attack several targets in Syria.”

Jerusalem usually updates Moscow before launching strikes in Syria, and therefore it was unlikely that any Russians were hit by Israel’s attacks on Saturday, Frolov said.

Asked if Russia gives Israel the green light for those attacks, he replied, “I don’t think that Israel is the type of country that takes instructions or waits for green light from anyone.”

While it was natural for President Vladimir Putin to demand that Israel not harm Russian servicemen, Frolov denied reports that the Kremlin relayed any threats to Jerusalem over that matter. “This is not our modus operandi,” he said.

In the interview, granted to The Times of Israel on the occasion of Russian Diplomats Day last Saturday, Frolov also addressed at great length Kremlin’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The US administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “greatly disrupted the peace process,” he said, adding that he failed to understand why Israelis so jubilantly celebrated President Donald Trump’s December 6 declaration. Besides acknowledging the obvious — that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital — Trump also made plain that the final borders will be determined by negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

“You see in Trump’s declaration what you like. But the fact that the declaration disturbs the peace process doesn’t bother you. No one doubts that Israel’s capital will be in Jerusalem. We are simply saying that the Arab population that lives in the Palestinian territories also deserves a capital in this holy city,” he said.

No one in Israel applauded when Moscow recognized western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in April of 2017, Frolov noted, adding that the Russian Embassy in Israel was considering hosting its June 12 Russia Day ceremony in the city.

Russia would like to play a more significant role in the peace process, Frolov said, acknowledging, however, that “without the US it’s impossible to reach agreements” between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We remember the French effort to launch a peace conference and we also remember how it ended,” he said referring to a January 2017 meeting in Paris, which concluded with little more than a joint statement calling for a two-state solution.

Abbas is simply looking for someone who will prevent President Trump from ruining the situation even more

Moscow would actually like the US to take a more active approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Frolov said, noting that after a year of the administration talking about a peace proposal nobody has seen a draft.

“I don’t think that you will be as happy to see the proposal as you were happy to see the first sentence of Trump’s Jerusalem declaration,” he predicted, hinting that it may ask Israel for painful concessions.

Despite the Palestinians’ rejection of the US as a mediator with Israel, Abbas, who visited Moscow this week, does not seek to exclude the administration from the peace process, the Russian diplomat said. “He is simply looking for someone who will prevent President Trump from ruining the situation even more. [Abbas] is an intelligent man who knows the history [of the peace process] very well.”

Frolov also played down the Palestinian leader’s controversial January 14 speech to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council in Ramallah, in which he claimed that the State of Israel is “a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism” to safeguard European interests.

“We’re not little children who get upset over statements made in anger and excitement,” Frolov said, adding that there are also Israelis who make outrageous and historically questionable statements.

As opposed to some Arab states that used to finance wars against Israel but now clandestinely cooperate with the Jewish state, the Palestinians have for some time now been ready to “live in good neighborly relations with Israel,” he said.

The head of the Shia Iraqi militia Harakat Al-Nujaba pledged to stand alongside its Lebanese ally Hizbollah if a new war breaks out with Israel, like reported by gulftoday.ae.

Harakat Al-Nujaba and Hezbollah have fought side-by-side to bolster Syrian government troops since 2013, most prominently against the Islamic State group in eastern Syria.

On Tuesday, the movement’s secretary general Akram al-Kaabi visited the tomb of top Hizbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh to commemorate the 10 years since his death.

“We in the Iraqi resistance stand with Hizbollah, and we will stand with Hizbollah in any Israeli attack or action against it,” Kaabi said.

He pledged to fight “with Hizbollah in a single row, on a single front, just as we stood with them on a single front in Iraq or Syria.”

Kaabi spoke in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hizbollah has a strong support base.

Both Harakat al-Nujaba and Hizbollah are backed by Iran.

They fought alongside Syrian government troops and other allied militia to oust Daesh from key cities in eastern Syria last year, including Albu Kamal.

Hizbollah has also dispatched top commanders and advisers to Iraq to help the paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi force.

In June, Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that hundreds of thousands of Arab and Muslim fighters would be ready to fight against Israel if it waged a new Pttack.

Participation

It “would open the door for hundreds of thousands of fighters from all around the Arab and Islamic world to participate in this fight — from Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan,” he said.

Kaabi is the second top Iraqi militia leader in recent months to come to Lebanon in a show of support to Hizbollah.