The retreat of units of the 30th Brigade (known as Shabak Hashd) of the Popular Mobilization Units five kilometres south of where they were deployed in the Nineveh Plain was announced today. Units from the regular Iraqi Army will be deployed in the location instead.
The move comes six days after six rockets were launched in that area which landed near Erbil International Airport.
The MP for Nineveh Governorate, Hanin Qaddo (brother of the former commander of the 30th Brigade) revealed in a statement that the Popular Mobilization Forces (Brigade 30) had withdrawn 5 kilometers into the Nineveh Plains region.
Haneen Qaddo, an MP from Nineveh and the brother of the former commander of the 30th Brigade, announced in a statement that the units of the 30th brigade had retreated 5 kilometres towards the interior of the Nineveh province.
He hurled accusations in the statement, saying "the orders were issued by the United States of America and Mr. Masoud Barzani to Mr. Mustafa al-Kadhimi."
Qaddo stressed that, like any other force, the 30th Brigade carried out the orders of the General Command of the Armed Forces without any hesitation.
However, he added: "Replacing the 30th Brigade’s members with some of the Iraqi Army soldiers in the Nineveh Plain will increase residents’ fears of this process and may lead to renewed displacements."
On the evening of Wednesday (30 September 2020), six rockets were fired using a make-shift launching pad riveted on the back of a small truck. The rockets landed near Erbil, in the vicinity of the Erbil International Airport; two of them near the IDP camp Hasam Shami. No casualties were reported, according to the Iraqi Army Media Cell.
The PMU in Nineveh demanded the following day to wait for the results of the investigation it launched on the matter, after the Kurdistan Region's Counter-Terrorism Service announced that the rockets were launched by the PMU.
The PMU has not revealed the results of their investigation yet.
On 24 September, the director of the Popular Mobilization Authority, Faleh al-Fayyadh, reportedly dismissed the commander of the 30th Brigade, Wa’ad Qaddo, from his position and appointed another person in his place.
