Popular Mobilisation Forces | Iraq’s militias within the military — SkimNews
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- The Popular Mobilisation Forces formed after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's June 13, 2014 fatwa, which followed the Islamic State's capture of Mosul three days earlier; hundreds of thousands of Iraqi youth volunteered, spawning Shia militias that outgrew the army and police.
- The PMF now comprises more than three dozen militias with an estimated 240,000 fighters and a $3.4 billion annual budget, divided historically into Iran-aligned factions, Sistani-aligned shrine units (which broke away in 2020), and the Sadrist Saraya al-Salam.
- Iran-backed factions—Badr Organisation, Kataib Hezbollah, and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba—are the most powerful PMF groups; the 2016 PMF commission law institutionalized them within the Iraqi armed forces, while militias formed political parties (Badr holds 18 parliament seats, Sadiqoun 27).
- The US completed its troop withdrawal from Iraq on September 30, 2026, 23 years after the invasion began; the PMF called it a "historic victory."
- After the US and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, 2026, Iran-aligned PMF factions carried out approximately 600 attacks on US military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq, prompting US airstrikes against the groups.
- Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi initially set a September 30 demobilization deadline, then pushed it to June 2027; Kataib Imam Ali and Saraya al-Salam have agreed to regularize their status, but Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba refuse, saying the Islamic resistance will continue while US forces remain in the region.
- Both the US and the militias agreed to a 90-day non-attack window following the US withdrawal, though the article warns that any Tehran-Washington escalation could directly spill into Iraq.
Why it matters: Iraq now faces a sovereignty test over a 240,000-strong militia network with a $3.4 billion budget and 45+ parliamentary seats, even as the government has committed to demobilize them by June 2027. With Iran-backed factions explicitly tying disarmament to the broader US regional presence and 600 attacks already logged since February 2026, the deadline doubles as a diplomatic flashpoint with Tehran, not just a domestic security question.
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