Telegram channels affiliated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq published posters threatening Israeli interests last week, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor.
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On April 14, Sabreen News, a Telegram channel linked to Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haq, published a poster celebrating the recent attack on an Israeli-owned cargo ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The MV Hyperion Ray suffered minor damage after it was struck near the Emirate of Fujairah.
The poster showed the vessel sinking after being cut in two by "Zulfiqar," the famed sword of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a common motif among Shiites, according to JTTM.
The text on the poster read: "Ask your grandfather about Thoalfkar [i.e., Zulfiqar] swords" in an apparent reference to the Battle of Khaybar of 628 C.E., in which Bin Talib fought the Jews.
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On April 13, the day of the attack on the Israeli vessel, another pro-Iran Telegram channel, Jihad Brothers Electronic Team, celebrated the attack and published a poster of a missile flying past a boat with the text: "What lies ahead is graver."
Also on April 13, a Telegram channel affiliated with the Iraq-based Hezbollah Brigades claimed the group had attacked an intelligence and operations center "run by the Israeli Mossad" in northern Iraq and that several Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded. The Kurdistan Regional Government, however, rejected reports a Mossad base had been attacked in northern Iraq.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
