US Congressman Joe Wilson condemned a parade in Baghdad on Sunday honoring former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, where attendees trampled on an American flag and an image of US President Donald Trump.
“America gives millions to Iraq. Today they form a parade to walk over our flag & picture of President Trump. @realDonaldTrump won’t forget,” Wilson wrote in a post on X Sunday.
Iraqi news website Shafaq News reported that thousands gathered in Baghdad for a symbolic funeral procession for Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, whose funeral is being held in Beirut.
Nasrallah was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Safieddine took over Hezbollah’s leadership after Nasrallah’s death but was killed a week later in another Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, south of Beirut.
Wilson, a longtime critic of US policy toward Iraq, also accused Iranian-backed militias of controlling the country’s judiciary, military, and government while receiving American funds.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have launched multiple attacks targeting Israel since the Hamas attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.
Following the assault, these militias began their operations by first targeting US forces in Syria and Iraq, before escalating their actions to include strikes against Israel itself.
Known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the groups are a patchwork of Shi'ite militias and factions. The factions joined forces to largely defeat radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq but continue to exert broad military and political control.
The Iraqi militia group Kata’ib Hezbollah, backed by Iran's IRGC Quds Force, has been linked to terrorist plots targeting Jewish centers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
