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Iraq
Hashd al-Shaabi fighters south of the city of Mosul during Operation Will of Victory, posted on August 10, 2019. Photo: Hashd al-Shaabi affiliated social media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi asserted the withdrawal of Hashd al-Shaabi from the areas it controls will take place, despite resistance to a brigade’s withdrawal from the Nineveh Plains earlier this week.
Talks with Hashd (otherwise known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF) leaders to ensure unit withdrawals are ongoing, the Iraqi Prime Minister said, as “some Hashd al-Shaabi leaders are afraid to implement the decree due to misunderstandings.”
No pressure has been applied by the Iraqi government on any Hashd units to start obeying the decree, Abdul-Mahdi added, aside from the assignment of deadlines by which integration of its units into the Iraqi army should take place.
Eventually, “only the Iraqi security forces will have checkpoints in the Nineveh Plains,” he affirmed.
Under pressure to curb the independence of Iran-affiliated groups after a spate of rocket attacks against US military and economic targets in Iraq, the prime minister – who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces - 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.
Abdul-Mahdi has repeatedly stated that the decree for Hashd integration into the Iraqi army is to protect the rights of Hashd fighters, and respect the “blood of the martyrs” shed in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS).
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.
Protesters blocked the Mosul-Erbil road on Monday to oppose the removal of Hashd al-Shaabi’s 30th brigade, in charge of the Nineveh Plains, is a unit predominantly made up of members of the Shabak ethnic group.
Brigade leader Waad Qado, also known as Abu Jaafar al-Shabaki, has garnered notoriety for extracting money from inhabitants of the mixed Christian-Shabak town “through extortion, illegal arrests and kidnappings,” for which he has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department.
Hashd leaders maintain that they are best equipped to handle security in the area, freed from ISIS two years ago.
“Any security gap in Mosul will be an advantage for ISIS to rise up again against Mosul city,” Qais al-Khazaali, head of Hashd’s Asaib Ahl al-Haq paramilitias, said in a tweet on Monday.
“30th Brigade of Hashd al-Shaabi fighters are from Mosul, and they are more knowledgeable on how to protect their city,” he added.
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 ISIS advanced on Baghdad.
At the height of its power between 2014 and 2016, ISIS seized and maintained control over 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, backed by US-led coalition air power. Retaking Mosul and its surrounding areas in the summer of 2017, its units have continued to remain in the area.
Hashd units are participating in the continuing Iraqi security forces-led Operation Will of Victory, targeting active ISIS remnants and sleeper cells across the country’s northern and central provinces.
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