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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A former U.S. official and special assistant to five American ambassadors in Iraq and senior adviser to three chiefs of U.S. Central Command has accused the Obama administration of providing cover to abuses committed by pro-government Shiite militias in Iraq.

In a Foreign Policy article published on Thursday, Ali Khedery describes the Iraqi government as “hopelessly sectarian, corrupt, and generally unfit to govern.”

He argues that through its response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), “The United States is now acting as the air force, the armory, and the diplomatic cover for Iraqi militias that are committing some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet.”

“These are “allies” that are actually beholden to our strategic foe, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and which often resort to the same vile tactics as the Islamic State itself,” added Khedery, who now runs Dragoman Partners, an international strategic advisory firm.

He blamed the Obama administration for Iraq’s implosion and the rise of ISIS by undermining the country’s constitution and bypassing the secular winner of the 2010 legislative elections Ayad Allawi in favor of the runner up Nouri al-Maliki, whose sectarian pro-Shiite policies helped boost ISIS presence in the country.

Khedery also accused the White House of having supported brutal pro-Iran Shiite war lords in Iraq, including “Badr Organization commander Hadi al-Ameri — who was welcomed in the Oval Office by Obama in 2011, and is known for favoring power drills to murder his victims.”

The former U.S. official also pointed out to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the suspected mastermind behind the 1980s attacks on American and French embassies in Kuwait.

Khedery wrote that al-Muhandis “was given command of the Kataib Hezbollah (KH) militia, an Iranian-sponsored group responsible for some of the most lethal attacks against U.S. and coalition forces throughout the war.”

He argues that these militia leaders and others are “deeply embedded within Baghdad’s power structure” and a lot of U.S. military assistance to Iraq actually ends up in the their hands is used to expand their abuses outside central government or Washington’s control.

Last week, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing Iraq’s pro-government Shiite militias of escalating abuses against Sunni civilians. “Residents have been forced from their homes, kidnapped, and in some cases summarily executed,” the rights group reported.

“Iraqi civilians are being hammered by ISIS and then by pro-government militias in areas they seize from ISIS,” said Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “With the government responding to those they deem terrorists with arbitrary arrests and executions, residents have nowhere to turn for protection.”

*Al Arabiya