PMF holds symbolic funeral for fighters killed in US airstrikes

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) and its supporters held a symbolic funeral in Baghdad on Tuesday for fighters killed in US airstrikes on Monday, renewing calls for the expulsion of US troops from Iraq.

The ceremony was attended by hundreds of members and supporters of Iran-backed PMF militias, chanting against the US and Israel and calling on the Iraqi government to expel foreign troops from the country. Empty caskets carried through the streets were surrounded by people carrying both Iraqi and PMF flags.

PMF-affiliated Telegram channels said senior leaders, including the PMF chief-of-staff Abu Fadak al-Mohammadawi, PMF head Falih al-Fayyad, and the head of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada Abu Ila’ al-Wala’i were in attendance. 

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi also visited the event.

Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, originally formed in Syria in 2013, was the militia targeted in the Monday airstrikes on the Iraq-Syria border which killed four fighters.

The US Department of Defense announced that the attack was at the direction of US President Joe Biden.

Iraq condemned the airstrikes as a "blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty."

"Iraq renews its refusal to be an arena for settling disputes, clings to its right to sovereignty over its lands, and prevents it from being used as an arena for reactions and attacks," said Yehia Rasool, a military spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. 

“The American enemy committed a crime against those martyrs," Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada’s spokesperson, Sheikh Kadhim al-Fartusi, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz from the parade. "I believe that America is trying to create a security gap for ISIS (Islamic State) to enter and attack Kurdistan and northern areas."

Last January, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling for the expulsion of foreign troops from Iraq.

“The parliament has to hurry and reaffirm its previous decision on expelling foreign forces from Iraq, and return Iraq's sovereignty into the hands of Iraqis,” Fartusi said, adding that until then, “everything will continue, even the operations.”

The airstrikes have riled up Iran-backed militias of the PMF, which were already hostile to the US, launching regular attacks on its interests in Iraq. 

“From now on, we will enter an open war with the American occupation, the first of which will be targeting their enemy aircrafts in the skies of our beloved Iraq,” Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada said in a statement published to Sabreen news, a PMF-affiliated Telegram channel, on Monday night.

Also attending the parade were leaders of some Shiite tribes.

“God willing, our martyrs are in heaven and their killers in fire,” Sheikh Jassem Abu Sajad al-Juboori said. “We are all soldiers and ready to give blood for this great Iraq, god willing, victory is near.”