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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Protesters blocked the Mosul-Erbil road on Monday to oppose the removal of a Hashd al-Shaabi unit, in a sign of the difficulties Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi faces in reining in the militia.
Footage of pro-Hashd protesters clashing with security forces in Bazwaia in east Mosul has emerged on social media.
“The Iraqi Prime Minister issued an order that forces all Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias to leave the Nineveh Plain and be stationed outside of it,” Sirwan Rozhbayani, deputy governor of Mosul province, told Rudaw English on Monday.
“The protesters are mainly Hashd al-Shaabi fighters themselves, and the aim of the protests is to show Iraqi PM Abdul-Mahdi that people in Mosul want Hashd to stay inside the city,” he added.
Though Baghdad has yet to publish a response to the protests, Nineveh governor Mansour Marid denounced the violent escalation of protests that led to the “cutting off of roads that connect provinces” in a Monday statement, urging protestors to adhere to the law.
In a similar vein, Nineveh Provincial Council member Aseel Shaheen Agha rejected the “rebellion against authority and law” in a statement on Monday.
Under pressure to curb the independence of Iran-affiliated groups after a spate of rocket attacks against US military and economic targets in Iraq, Abdul-Mahdi ordered the July 31 withdrawal of all informal Hashd al-Shaabi units from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, as part of a package of reforms to integrate Hashd into Iraq’s defense apparatus.
However, Hashd commander and National Security Advisor Falih al-Fayadh requested an extension of two months to finalize the new structure, according to an official letter published a day before the deadline.
Baghdad wants Hashd forces to withdraw from urban areas, and for federal police to take over responsibility for the area’s security.
Having failed to withdraw by July 31, a subsequent deadline for Hashd units to pull out from the Nineveh Plain was set for 8 a.m. local time on August 5.
Monday’s protests opposed the removal of Brigade 30, a Hashd unit primarily composed of ethnically Shabak residents of eastern Mosul, who are predominantly Shiite.
Qusai Abbas, a Shabak MP with links to Brigade 30, told Iraqi news outlet al-Ahad that protests had initially been peaceful before infiltrators joined the protests to attack the Army.
The brigade has caused particular controversy, with leader Waad Qado, also known as Abu Jaafar al-Shabaki, recently sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for alleged corruption and human rights abuses.
Qado was accused of extracting money from the mixed Christian-Shabak town of Bartella on the Nineveh Plain “through extortion, illegal arrests and kidnappings”.
Formally incorporated into Iraq’s armed forces following a 2016 parliamentary bill, Hashd al-Shaabi is officially under the command of Abdul-Mahdi and Fayyadh.
The almost entirely Shiite paramilitias were formed in 2014 following a fatwa (religious decree) by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite religious authority in Iraq as the Islamic State group (ISIS) advanced on Baghdad.
The group seized vast areas of northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. At the height of its power between 2014 and 2016, ISIS controlled an area roughly the size of Great Britain, spread across both Iraq and Syria.
Hashd assisted the Iraqi army in the 2016-2017 offensive to dislodge ISIS, which ruled the city of Mosul and its surrounding areas for over two and a half years, backed by US-led coalition airpower. Retaking the city in the summer of 2017, PMF units have remained there ever since.
Reacting to Monday's protest, Rihan Hana, a Christian MP in the Iraqi parliament, said that Brigade 30 needed to leave the Nineveh Plains and be replaced by the Iraqi Army.
“The implementation of law in Nineveh Plains is essential for peaceful co-existence,” she added.
Hashd units are currently participating in the third phase of operation “Will of Victory”, targeting active ISIS remnants and sleeper cells around Diyala.
In a separate operation, Brigade 30 claimed to have cleared six villages to the south of Mosul from ISIS presence on Monday.
Updated at 11:44pm
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