Iraq’s Shiite militias, formed in 2014 to fight Sunni extremists from the Islamic State, show no intention of standing down after the battle.
Instead, they’re demanding to be a major force in shaping Iraq. That prospect worries not only Iraq’s Sunni minority but also officials in the military and the Shiite-led government who fear the militias will dominate Iraq the way the Revolutionary Guard does Iran and the guerrilla group Hezbollah does Lebanon.
Two top generals warned that the army eventually could come to blows with the militias, known collectively as the “Hashd,” Arabic for “mobilization.”
“(The militias) have now infiltrated the government and are meddling in politics,” said Ali Omran, commander of the army’s 5th Infantry Division and a veteran of numerous battles against the Islamic State. “I told the Hashd people that one day I and my men may fight them.”
The more than 50 Shiite militias in Iraq have 60,000 to 140,000 fighters, according to estimates from the government and the Hashd. They are backed by tanks and weapons and have their own intelligence agency, operations rooms and court of law.
The larger militias, such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the Hezbollah Brigades, Badr and the Peace Brigades, have been in place since soon after the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. They are linked to political parties, effectively forming armed branches for politicians.
But the ranks of the militias swelled after the Islamic State overran nearly a third of Iraq in summer 2014, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, called on able-bodied males to fight. At the time, tens of thousands turned out.
Those same militias now want to remain a permanent, independent armed force and are resisting attempts to integrate them into the military or police, The AP found from interviews with more than 15 government officials, army generals and militia leaders and visits to Tikrit and Samarra, Sunni-majority areas where the militias hold power.
The militias insist they have earned a special status, pointing to the 5,000 militiamen killed and 16,000 wounded fighting the Islamic State.
“Those who sacrificed more are entitled to more,” said Hamed al-Jazaeery, head of the al-Khorasani Brigades militia. “What is written with blood cannot be removed. It is not ink on paper.”
“We want to be a third power in Iraq,” alongside the army and police, al-Jazaeery said. “Why can’t the Hashd be like the Revolutionary Guard in Iran?”
In Iran, the Revolutionary Guard is an elite force independent of — and better armed than — the military, tasked with “protecting” the Shiite cleric-led power structure. It is effectively a state within a state, rivaling the political strength of Iran’s supreme leader.
“People fear and trust us more than they fear and trust the government,” said Ahmed al-Assady, a Shiite lawmaker and spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Commission, which was created to oversee the militias. “They fear us because we act, not just talk.”
Some in the government and military are beginning to see the militias as a danger to the state itself. Since its 2014 collapse, the military has been slowly recovering. But Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, deputy commander of the army’s elite counterterrorism force, said the militias don’t want the military to regain its strength.
“They may be tempted to take on the army if they don’t have their way,” he said.
More than 50
Number of Shiite militas in Iraq
Up to 140,000
How many fighters are in the militias
5,000
Number of militiamen killed by the Islamic State
