ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Shiite militia movement known as Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, now claims to have signed up 100,000 volunteers in Iraq’s ongoing war against the Islamic State, announced Moein al-Kazemi, a member of the group's leadership committee.
“Volunteers who joined the group are mostly students and workers. They followed the Shiite leader’s public call to fight ISIS and they joined,” he said.
According to Kazemi, Iraqi police and Hashd al-Shaabi commanders are currently training the new arrivals prior to sending them to the front line.
The Hashd al-Shaabi rose up last year after a call from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite cleric in Iraq, when ISIS fighters overran much of the country's western territory.
The militias, some of which have known ties to Iran, took the lead in the liberation of Tikrit earlier this year amid subsequent allegations the fighters marginalized Sunni residents of the area.
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