Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iran-aligned Iraqi armed factions and the family of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis rejected on Wednesday remarks by US President Donald Trump disparaging him along with Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, who commanded the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and al-Muhandis were killed together in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.
The reactions followed a July 14 Oval Office meeting between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, a businessman installed this year after months of post-election deadlock. During the meeting, Trump described Soleimani as "brilliant, but evil" and asked whether killing him and “another Iraqi man [al-Muhandis] had benefited Iraq. Al-Zaidi declined to engage on the 2020 strike, saying he had not been in politics at the time, and added, "Let's talk about the future."
The family of al-Muhandis said Trump's decision to name Soleimani and al-Muhandis reflected fear on his part, and it addressed al-Zaidi directly as an official new to politics, saying a leader who distances himself from his nation's past is unfit to lead its future.
The family further claimed that al-Zaidi's Washington visit was intended to dismantle the PMF and to place Iraq's oil wealth under US control, framing both as a continuation of the campaign that began with the killing of al-Muhandis. It rejected calls to disarm armed factions under the banner of confining weapons to the state, describing that framing as an American and Israeli agenda.
Akram al-Kaabi, secretary-general of Harakat al-Nujaba (the al-Nujaba Movement), an Iran-backed Iraqi armed faction, condemned Trump, using highly derogatory language against the president and his administration. He said Soleimani and other figures of the resistance were more honorable than the US president's "rotten head," describing Trump as a "fool who kills children" and his administration as "criminal and evil."
Al-Kaabi said those “corrupt thieves” would not profit from Iraq's oil and wealth, whether through direct seizure or “suspicious investment cover,” and asserted that the Islamic Resistance would endure and drive foreign forces out.
— الشيخ اكرم الكعبي (@Akram_Alkabee) July 15, 2026
Sabreen News, an anonymous Telegram channel associated with the Iran-aligned Resistance Axis, mocked Trump in a series of posts as an imbecile and asserted the armed resistance would outlast him.