A local official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Rudaw the new Kurdish draftees had not been armed yet and were still expecting their first monthly payments from the militia.
“We really don’t know how to deal with this new situation, although we did recommend them not to enlist, but they have not asked for our advice and I find it unrealistic for them to listen to us now,” PUK’s Karim Shukur said, referring to the mostly young Kurdish recruits.
Karim added that high levels of unemployment and poverty had led many of the young local Kurds to seek a more stable economic life with militia groups such as the Hashd al-Watani whose Shiite counterpart, the Hashd al-Shaabi, has already recruited many Kurdish members in Khanaqin, southern Kurdistan Region.
“We have asked for the establishment of a new Peshmerga brigade in this region which could enlist the young Kurdish men who are economically vulnerable and could end up in such militia organisations,” Shukur added.
Hashd al-Watani, which is largely seen as an equivalent to the more powerful Iran-backed Shiite armed group known as Hashd al-Shaabi, was initially established to recruit Sunni fighters who were willing to take part in a possible assault on ISIS in the Sunni heartland of Mosul.
The Sunni group was funded by Iraq’s predominantly Shiite government until in late 2015 in an effort to avert sectarian tensions in a region with largely underprivileged Sunni populations who have often had hostile attitudes towards government policies in Baghdad.
The Iraqi government froze payments to the group in August 2015. Military officials with the Hashd al-Watani told Rudaw in December 2015 that Ankara had paid parts of the salaries of the troops since.
Kurdish officials in Khurmatu have warned of new rounds of armed tensions between Kurdish residents of the area and the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi after a fragile truce was announced in January 2016.
At least 30 people were killed and several others wounded in two days of intense fighting between Kurdish and Shiite groups in the ethnically mixed city 100 kilometres southeast of Kirkuk.
In late 2014 Iraqi and Kurdish authorities reached an agreement to allow the deployment of Shiite militias to the city in what officials described as “protecting the Shiite population” in the area.
