Top anti-ISIS US envoy in Iraq after MPs vote in favor of Shiite force

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The top US envoy in the fight against ISIS arrived in Baghdad Thursday for “consultations,” days after the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution to induct the US-opposed Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite paramilitaries into the regular army.

“Landed in #Baghdad for week of consultations on #Mosul op & longer-term efforts to support #Iraq's stabilization after #ISIL's defeat,” Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (ISIS) said in a tweet.

Although there was no hint in McGurk’s comment that he was in Baghdad to discuss the resolution inducting the Hashd al-Shaabi into the army, the US has been consistent in its opposition to the Iranian-backed force, which has been taking part in the anti-ISIS offensive in Mosul. 

The Pentagon said on Tuesday it has not changed its position regarding the Hashd, which is also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and that it is not providing support to the group in the Mosul campaign.

"We're not providing support to the PMF at this time,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said on Tuesday. “We're going to continue to provide support to the Iraqi security forces, and that has not changed," he added in response to a comment about some of the forces in the PMF being implicated in the anti-American insurgency that followed the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Asked whether the US position will change once the Iraqi parliament’s resolution is implemented and the Hashd are formally inducted, Cook said he would have that conversation once the move has been carried out.

"We have stated clearly in the past that we will not support those PMF forces.  If there's a change in the structure, that's a determination that the Iraqis will make on their own and we'll have that conversation at a later time.  But at this point, our position has not changed," he said.

Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commander of the anti-ISIS coalition’s ground forces, said in the first week of the Mosul operation in October that the allied forces would not support the PMF because it is not under the direct command and control of the Iraqi forces.

The Hashd al Shaabi, which says it has 140,000 fighters, began its offensive southwest and west of Mosul on October 29, almost two weeks after the start of the Mosul operation by the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi armed forces say they have liberated 23 districts in the eastern parts of Mosul, but progress seems to have slowed as soldiers head to the more densely populated central parts of the city on the west bank of the Tigris river.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reiterated this week that he is confident his forces will recapture Mosul by the end of the year. US officials have avoided giving a timeline for the offensive, while repeatedly stressing that the operation is going as planned.