Exclusive: Iran-backed militias in Iraq ready to disarm to avert Trump wrath

BAGHDAD, April 7 (Reuters) - Several powerful Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the U.S. Trump administration, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials told Reuters.

The move to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued privately by U.S. officials to the Iraqi government since Trump took power in January, according to the sources who include six local commanders of four major militias.

The officials told Baghdad that unless it acted to disband the militias operating on its soil, America could target the groups with airstrikes, the people added.

Izzat al-Shahbndar, a senior Shi'ite Muslim politician close to Iraq's governing alliance, told Reuters that discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and several militia leaders were "very advanced", and the groups were inclined to comply with U.S. calls for disarmament.

"The factions are not acting stubbornly or insisting on continuing in their current form," he said, adding that the groups were "fully aware" they could be targeted by the U.S.

The six militia commanders interviewed in Baghdad and a southern province, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, are from the Kataib Hezbollah, Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada and Ansarullah al-Awfiyaa groups.

"Trump is ready to take the war with us to worse levels, we know that, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario," said a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful Shi'ite militia, who spoke from behind a black face mask and sunglasses.

The commanders said their main ally and patron, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) military force, had given them its b...
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