Say Anything Blog

Quds force being the branch of Iran’s terrorist enabling Revolutionary Guards specifically charged with clandestine operations in other countries.

They established a headquarters in Sadr city near a hospital, using that facility to shield them from coalition attacks (a war crime, for those paying attention).  This proved to be a mistake on their part:

GMLRS strike knocks out Special Groups command center in Sadr City
By Bill Roggio
The Long War Journal

US and Iraqi forces continue to target the Mahdi Army as an Iraqi delegation visited Iran to confront the country over its support of Shia militias battling the government. The US military conducted a guided rocket attack on a Special Groups headquarters adjacent to a hospital in Sadr City, while 14 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed during clashes over the past 24 hours.

The US Army targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center in a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System strike in Sadr City at 10 AM local time Saturday morning, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. “There were six GMLRS rocket strikes on these Special Groups criminal command and control nodes,” Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Division Baghdad, told The Long War Journal while refuting claims that the US used aircraft to attack. “We conducted a precision strike, hopefully got a few leaders, and sent a very strong message.”

The Special Groups have been using the location near the hospital for an extended period of time and US intelligence has followed the activities at this site. “We had been tracking it for some time,” Stover said. “Operations made the call to hit it. There may have been damages to the hospital - broken glass. There was likely ambulances damaged; however, it was the Special Groups criminal leadership that purposely put their command and control node there.”

Context via Wretchard at the Belmont Club:

The arrival of a GMLRS rocket so suddenly that no one has time to even react has given it a psychological—even a theological potency—and militants call it the “the Hand of Allah”. A registered trademark of General Dynamics.

Heh.