Jihadist Mob Attacks Baghdad KFC to Make Anti-American Statement

Iraqi security forces fired on protesters outside a KFC restaurant in Baghdad on Monday, reportedly wounding three people and arresting 12.

It was the third mob attack on a KFC in Baghdad in a week, apparently inspired by Iran-backed Shiite militias calling for boycotts and assaults on American brand names.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said after Monday’s arrests that some of the suspects “unfortunately” appeared to belong to “one of the security apparatuses.” Security officials said many of the detainees were quickly released.

The Iraqi government has been trying to woo major international brands to do business in Iraq, while Iran’s militia proxies want to punish Western companies for supporting Israel. KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a popular brand in parts of the Middle East, so boycotts and mob actions often target it

Squads of masked men with guns, bombs, and clubs have attacked several KFCs — along with other American brands, such as Chili House, Lee’s, and Caterpillar — in Baghdad since May. Security camera footage shows the vandal squads lobbing firebombs at some locations and physically entering others to smash equipment, windows, and furniture. Terrified customers flee the premises as masked goons wreck the establishment with clubs:

Two officials from Iran-backed militias in Iraq confirmed to the Associated Press on Friday that the vandals were their operatives. These officials said the attacks were meant to inspire boycotts of American brands and bolster the image of the militias as powerful and dangerous.

A spokesman for one of the largest Iran-backed militias, Katai’b Hezbollah, said on Monday that supporters should organize and take action to rid Iraq of Israel’s alleged “espionage affiliates covered in civilian garb.”

Political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari said the attacks have “political goals,” which include sending the message that “any investment or presence of Western companies in Iraq cannot survive.”

The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, who received vital political support from pro-Iranian factions in Iraq, has mobilized security forces to crack down on the most overt acts of vandalism and mayhem.

Iran’s militia proxies lost a considerable amount of power in the 2021 parliamentary elections, while militant Shiites who presented themselves as more loyal to Iraq than Iran were on the rise. The erratic nature of Iraq’s most influential Shiite and nationalist leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, gave Sudani an opportunity to slide into office as a compromise candidate.

Al-Sadr demanded in May that Sudani expel the U.S. ambassador and shutter the U.S. embassy in response to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. He was generous enough to indicate that he wanted the embassy to be shut down “without bloodshed.”

Sudani threw some money at the Shiite militias, who were nominally deputized by the Iraqi military to fight the Islamic State but demonstrated little obedience to Baghdad while sending the message that he wanted a more stable Iraqi that could bring in more foreign investments.

Whatever progress Sudani was making along those lines was ruined by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s military response in Gaza. The Shiite militias began attacking American targets across Iraq — ineffectually, at first, but later with deadly results.

The militias suspended their attacks for a while, ostensibly because they were worried about “embarrassing” Sudani’s government too much, but they resumed hostilities in April. Now they seem to have shifted to a boycott and vandalism strategy, hitting American companies in Baghdad after Israel began its offensive against the Rafah region of Gaza.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Thursday that the United States expects the Iraqi government to “prevent attacks being launched on their soil,” including militia attacks against Iraqi civilians:

The attacks on what are essentially franchises of U.S. companies harm Iraqi workers, Iraqi patrons, and sometimes Iraqi capital that is being employed there, and so they are attacks against the Iraqi people, and we think the Iraqi Government ought to take appropriate measures to respond to those attacks and hold people accountable for them.

Miller said the U.S. is concerned that Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the name given to the Shiite militias when they joined the fight against ISIS, “are not responsive to the Iraqi commander in chief and engage in violent and destabilizing activities in Iraq and Syria.” He did not comment when a reporter pointed out that some of the terrorists arrested in Baghdad on Monday were reportedly members of the security forces.