BAGHDAD: Iraqi journalists, activists and researchers are facing a wave of accusations and threats by shadowy online groups they suspect are linked to powerful pro-Iran factions.
Parties, armed groups and even officials in Iraq benefit from legions of supporters dubbed “electronic armies,” which take to social media to anonymously sing their praises or mock their detractors.
These online rivalries now appear to have been fanned by months of rising tensions pitting Iran against the US and Israel.
This summer, suspicious explosions hit five camps and arms depots run by Iraq’s Hashed Al-Shaabi, a network of mostly Shiite armed factions linked to Iran.
The Hashed was quick to blame Israel and the United States, but also said it suspected “agents” of the two countries contributed to the attacks.
That accusation was followed by an online campaign accusing a broad range of Iraqi nationals of “collaborating” with Israel and the US.
One graphic shared by an Arabic-language page named “Don’t Tread on Us” accused 14 Iraqis of de facto supporting a policy of “normalization with Israel.”
Shared on social media, it named figures such as journalist Joumana Mumtaz and blogger Ali Wajih.
In response, Wajih penned a rare open letter to Iraq’s prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, Hashed chief Faleh Fayyadh and his powerful deputy Abu Mehdi Al-Muhandis.
“For years, a group of us journalists and bloggers has faced incitements to murder by people and pages that may be close to the Hashed, or directly linked to it,” he wrote.
Allegations they were “agents” or seeking normalization with Israel, Wajih said, were “empty and silly.”
Iraqis have long been opposed to Israel because of its occupation of Palestinian land.
Baghdad has however developed close ties with Washington since the American-led invasion that toppled ex-dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Despite that, Washington’s bitter rival Tehran also holds considerable sway in Iraq’s political scene and within the Hashed.
In recent months, anti-Israel and anti-US rhetoric has been on the rise as Iraqis feel increasingly squeezed by the war of words between the two sides.
Some Iraqi factions have used the purported Israeli strikes to relaunch calls for US troops to leave Iraq.
Just last week, many of the same figures lashed out against US-funded Al-Hurra TV for a documentary alleging corruption among Iraq’s religious bodies, both Sunni and Shiite.
Perceptions Iraq was being “attacked” by Israel and America were “broadened to include critical and independent Iraqi voices, who have been maligned as agents in a broader plot,” said Fanar Haddad, an Iraq expert at the National University of Singapore.
“In this way, entrenched domestic interests and rivalries have been folded into the ongoing tensions between the Iran-led axis of resistance and the United States, Israel and their allies in the region,” he said.
Omar Al-Shaher, a journalist named in the graphic, said there was “not a shred of proof” to back up the claims.
“These days, it’s more dangerous than ever to have your name associated with the Israeli camp,” he told AFP.
Historian Omar Mohammad, who documented atrocities in Mosul under the Daesh group, said he suspected the new accusations came “as a result of the recent (purported) Israeli airstrikes and US-Iranian tensions.”
Mohammad said the graphic’s sleek production meant he was “absolutely” taking its threats seriously.
“It is institutional and professional. Seems there is a team specialized in dehumanizing us,” Mohammad told AFP from outside Iraq.
Media rights groups are worried such incitement could lead to real violence.
“The sensitivity of the Palestinian question in the region means that accusing someone of working with Israel is tantamount to calling for their killing,” said the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.
On Thursday, monitor and rights group Iraqi Media House called for better protection of journalists.
“The phenomenon of electronic armies has reached dangerous levels, issuing threats including incitement to violence and hatred,” it said.
“We are surprised by the authorities’ continued silence so far, including the judiciary, in a clear abandonment of its responsibilities when it comes to electronic crimes.”
In divided Iraq, ‘electronic armies’ threaten activists, media
In divided Iraq, ‘electronic armies’ threaten activists, media
- Parties, armed groups and even officials in Iraq benefit from legions of supporters dubbed “electronic armies,”
Trump says ‘someone from within’ Iranian regime might be best choice to lead once war ends
- Trump had earlier called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the war US-Israel strikes end
- He now appears to drift away from the idea of putting an end Iran's theocratic rule
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”
The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the US-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the US-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.
Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.
“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.
Trump’s comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran.
Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”
“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”
The White House is trying to counter criticism
The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.
Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the US increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.
After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.
The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.
Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the US
Trump snaps at the UK, Spain over lack of support
Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized Britain and Spain for their reluctance to aid the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump fumed about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.
Trump also said he was going to “cut off all trade with Spain,” the day after Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said his country would not allow the US to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the United Nations’ charter.
Trump disputes that Israel forced his hand
The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the US had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.
But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
Rubio on Tuesday echoed Trump’s insistence that the decision to attack Iran was made independent of Israel.
Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.
He said Berlin wants to work with the US on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.
“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”
Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.
The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the US remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.
“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the US jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.
