ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Shiite militia groups known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, will be part of the operation to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State, a spokesperson for the Iraqi government said Wednesday.
Zhuhai Aeraji, the representative of a government-backed coordination unit to recapture Mosul, told reporters the Shiite fighters will take part in the campaign in coordination with Sunni forces and the Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“There are many sides who will take part in the operation, including a US military and consultative forces in cooperation with Kurdistan region and Hashd al- Shaabi,” Aeraji said.
Established as a Shiite resistance group in the aftermath of the ISIS lightening offensive last year, the Hashd al-Shaabi have been accused of enflaming sectarian tension and bowing to neighboring Iran.
Hadi Ameri, the movement’s leader, is a former Iraqi minister of transportation who has been criticized by Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province for “indiscriminate and retaliatory” actions.
In March, Ameri appealed to the mostly Sunni residents of Tikrit, a city some 140 km northwest of Baghdad, to leave their homes within 48 hours so government forces could "wrap up the battle of the revenge for Speicher."
Camp Speicher is an army base near Tikrit where at least 1,500 Shiite recruits were kidnapped and executed in the early days of the ISIS offensive.
Iraq’s Sunni leaders fear the participation of the Shiite militia will escalate sectarian tensions among the mixed ethnic and religious populations of the Nineveh plains, where Mosul is the capital.
Karim Nouri, a spokesperson for the Hashd al-Shaabi, said earlier that recapturing central areas in Iraq will “pave the way to drive out ISIS militants from Mosul.”
“When Anbar and Salahaddin provinces are freed, I think it will be easier to control Mosul again without much resistance,” Karim said, denying there were any tensions between Kurds and Hasd al-Shaabi.
According to government spokesman Aeraji, the US force that will allegedly help the joint Iraqis forces in Mosul is currently based in Rabia, a town bordering Syria between Duhok and Shingal.
