“Before I got here, I read all kinds of things about the PMF, and I got here and I haven’t observed that behavior,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, referring to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), as the Hashd al-Shaabi are also known.
“We’re not having allegations of bad behavior or misconduct,” he added in an interview with The Daily Beast published Monday.
Concerns of sectarian violence in the military offensive to rout ISIS from the largely Sunni city of Mosul were high in the lead up to the commencement of the operation, particularly after the Shiite forces were accused of human rights violations against the Sunni population of Fallujah during the liberation of that city earlier this year.
But Townsend said the Hashd al-Shaabi are disciplined and are following orders from Baghdad, which passed a law bringing the Shiite force under its control this month.
The US general said that, as a national force, the Hashd al-Shaabi could help make Iraq more secure as long as they are not influenced by Iran. The US government, Townsend said, “is going to try to shape” the law that legalized the Shiite force.
He praised their advances west of Mosul. “The PMF did advance more rapidly than we expected and they’ve done a good job,” Townsend said, referring to their campaign to cut off ISIS’ western escape and supply route to Syria via Tal Afar.
But, he noted, the US has no plans to send military advisors to the force in the way American soldiers are embedded with other Iraqi forces on the ground.
The Hashd al-Shaabi does, however, receive “incidental benefit” from coalition airstrikes, coalition spokesperson Col. John Dorrian confirmed last week.
“We do conduct airstrikes against ISIL targets, Daesh targets anywhere that they can be found in Iraq. So we continue to strike their fighters, we continue to strike their resources. And in many cases this has provided incidental benefit to the PMUs, they operate near and around Tal Afar,” said Dorrian, referring to the Popular Mobilization Units, an alternate name for the Shiite forces.
“The PMU are operating under the command and control of the government of Iraq, they’re executing the Iraqi plan, and they’ve blocked the egress routes from Mosul towards Syria and this is a good thing because it traps ISIL in Mosul,” he added.
