Sunni concerns grow over Iraq's recognition of Shiite paramilitary group

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region-- Head of the Sunni tribe of Shammar in Iraq has voiced concern over Saturday's official recognition of the Hashd al-Shaabi, a Shiite paramilitary group with growing influence in the country following its sweeping victories against ISIS militants across Iraq. 

After a voting session on Saturday, Iraq's parliament granted legal status to the controversial group which has managed to mobilize Shiite forces and push back ISIS militants in several key regions across the country in the wake of Iraqi army's humiliating defeat after ISIS offensive in 2014. 

But the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces in Arabic) has faced mounting criticism in the country as rights groups accused its forces of illegal detention of Sunni men and destruction of their properties in what activists view as Shiite retaliatory actions against Sunni populations in Iraq. 

"Members of Shia militias, who the Iraqi government has included among its state forces, abducted and killed scores of Sunni residents in a central Iraq town and demolished Sunni homes, stores, and mosques following January 11, 2016 bombings claimed by the extremist group Islamic State," a statement by the Human Rights Watch noted earlier this year. 

The Washington-based rights group has also accused the Shiite group of possible war crimes and inhuman treatment of Sunni detainees. 

"We understand that there is a war taking place at present in Mosul, but on the other hand the Hashd al-Shaabi has been legalized and that we deem as dangerous for Iraq's future," said Abdulrazaq Shammar, head of the Shammar tribe, a large Sunni tribe in Nineveh Plains. 

"We suspect that the Hashd has been assigned for future plans after the ISIS, and we really cannot see that these plans are set for the wellbeing of Iraq and its people," the Sunni cheftian told reporters in Erbil at a press conference. 

With over 100,000 mostly Shiite recruits, the Hashd al-Shaabi has been a formidable force with defining impacts on the battle grounds despite US-led coalition's refusal to cooperate due to its strong ties with Iran's revolutionary guards known as Pasdaran, a group that has been in US terror list since 1990s. 

Critics of the Shiite force, including the Kurdish officials, see the group as an extension of Iran's unprecedented influence in post-war Iraq, fearing the group would answer to the Islamic Republic in Tehran rather than the central government in Baghdad. 

Saturday's parliamentary bill will place the Hashd under the country's prime minister, but sceptics have raised doubt over government's actual power to control the group. 

"We think that even the Sunni MPs who voted for the bill, are against Sunni interests and did so under the influence of Iran," Shammari said. 

Eleven Sunni lawmakers voted in support of the bill along with a majority of the Shiite MPs. 

"The majority does not have the right to determine the fate of everyone else," leading Sunni lawmaker Osama Nujaifi told reporters in Baghdad after the vote. 

"There should be genuine political inclusion. This law must be revised," he insisted.