Militias loyal to Iran allegedly behind the assassination of Iraqi analyst Hisham al-Hashemi

Iraqi security services have arrested the alleged killer of Hisham al-Hashemi, an analyst specialising in security and strategic affairs. Al-Hashemi was also an advisor to the Iraqi government during the fight against Daesh, a group he was investigating. On 6 July 2020, he was killed by gunmen outside his home in Baghdad. The killing was linked to paramilitary groups and Da'esh, although the authorities have so far not accused any specific group or individual.

Finally, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi announced on Friday the arrest of the analyst's killers. One of them, Ahmed Hamdawi Awaid Marrij al-Kinani, worked as a first lieutenant in the Interior Ministry and openly confessed to killing the analyst. Al-Kinani belonged to a "group of street outlaws", a term used by the Iraqi government to refer to perpetrators of attacks on military bases of international coalition forces.

The Iraqi prime minister also described how the attack was planned. "The armed group consisted of four people carrying firearms and travelling on two motorbikes and a car. About four or five bullets were fired at al-Hashemi," al-Kazemi said.

"We will bring death squads and killers to justice. We have arrested hundreds of criminals, killers of innocent Iraqis," he added on Twitter, while recalling having "kept the promise" to arrest the analyst's killers. Security forces are still searching for at least six other people linked to the attack, although they fear some of those involved may have fled the country.

Shortly after al-Hashemi's death, political activist Ghaith al-Tamimi published several conversations with the analyst in which he claimed to have received threats from the Iranian-backed militia Islamic Resistance Movement of Iraq (Kataeb Hezbollah). Iraqi public opinion has also pointed the finger at Tehran following the announcement of the arrest of the alleged assassins. "The murderer of al-Hashemi belongs to a militia affiliated with Iran," local Iraqi media reported.

An Iraqi security source also told AFP that the suspect in al-Hashemi's death is "linked to the Iraqi Hezbollah brigades, a Shiite armed faction loyal to Iran in Iraq". The Iraqi researcher had criticised this group and Iranian influence in Iraq in some of his writings. In addition to his work as a government advisor, al-Hashemi collaborated with the US think-tank Center for Global Policy (CGP) and the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw.

However, al-Hashemi was not the only public figure killed who had previously criticised Tehran's influence in Iraq. Activist Ihab Al-Wazni was killed in the same way as al-Hashemi on 9 May, shot in front of his home in southern Baghdad. Al-Wazni was one of the most prominent voices against corruption, state mismanagement and the Iranian presence in the country through armed groups. Civil rights activist Tahsin Osama was killed last August in a similar attack in Basra. On the same day and in the same place, activists Ludia Raymond and Abbas Sobhi were injured after an assassination attempt in the same city. The southern city of Basra has been the scene of multiple attacks on activists and journalists. Prime Minister Al-Kazemi called the Basra killers a "death gang".

Iran's presence in Iraq is intensifying through Shia armed groups, as is also the case in Syria. Pro-Iranian militias on Iraqi territory have carried out more than 40 attacks so far this year against US targets in the country.