Informed Iraqi sources revealed that the leader of the Lebanese terrorist Hezbollah militia, Hassan Nasrallah, was present until late on the night of September 23-24 at the Baron Hotel in Karbala Governorate, southern Iraq, which he arrived at with his family early last August.
The sources indicated that Nasrallah was present at the hotel accompanied by officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard under heavy guard from a special force from the Iranian Quds Force.
The Baron Hotel is considered one of the most prominent investments of the Lebanese terrorist Hezbollah militia in Iraq and among Nasrallah’s personal investments, who owns major projects in Baghdad and southern Iraq, including oil, real estate, and tourism projects, universities, and commercial companies, some of which he shares with leaders of the Iraqi militias, including the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr.
According to these sources, including security officials who spoke to News East, “Nasrallah and his family moved secretly and under heavy guard from Iran to Iraq early last August, fearing that he would be targeted by Israel after the assassination of the head of the political bureau of the terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran at the end of last July.” The sources revealed that the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, who has a family relationship and friendship with Nasrallah, arrived on August 13 at the Zurbatiyah-Mehran crossing on the Iraqi Iranian border accompanied by more than 40 armored four-wheel drive vehicles with shades. After waiting for a while and temporarily stopping the entry of visitors under heavy protection by a special force of masked men, al-Sadr’s convoy left the crossing accompanied by Nasrallah, his family, and a heavy escort from the Iranians. According to the information, the Hezbollah leader moved to Iraq under direct orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, to avoid repeating the fate of Haniyeh, and Unit 400 of the Quds Force, which is responsible for secret operations carried out by the Revolutionary Guards outside the borders, carried out the operation to transfer him to Iraq, where he was transferred directly to Najaf under the cover of the “Arbaeen” pilgrimage ceremony for Shiites.
It was scheduled that Nasrallah would be transferred to the Jurf al-Sakhr area north of Babil Governorate, south of Baghdad, as it is the fortified Iranian area in Iraq since 2015, but leaders in the Iranian militias considered his presence between Najaf and Karbala safer than Jurf al-Sakhr, especially after the killing of a Houthi leader and a number of Hezbollah militants in an American raid that targeted them in Jurf al-Sakhr days before Nasrallah arrived in Iraq.
According to the information, Nasrallah has secretly moved between Najaf and Karbala several times during the past period in shaded cars belonging to Iraqi government officials.
