Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) will be needed for the upcoming liberation of Mosul from Islamic State (ISIS) said the spokesman of one of its most powerful factions. "We think the battle to liberate Mosul will be huge, complex; it will be about guerrilla warfare in built-up areas, which only PMF fighters are good at ..., as forces may be fighting house to house, room to room," Jawad al-Talabawi, the spokesman for the Shiite Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. The PMFs, also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, consists primarily of Shiite militias. It is feared that having such a group enter a Sunni-majority city like Mosul could have incendiary effects. The Mosul Provincial Council said last month that it opposed the Hashd participating in Mosul's liberation. Instead it is argued that Mosul's liberation should be like Ramadi's, with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) being given close air support by the US-led coalition as it advances into the ISIS-occupied city. Talabawi believes Ramadi offers a poor precedent and pointed out that Mosul is four times bigger than Ramadi. He then went on to insist that Hashd would cause much less damage if they went in without the coalition blowing up large parts of the city to enable the ISF to advance.
