Newly displayed assertiveness by Iran-backed Shiite militias is concerning Sunni residents of the strategic Iraqi city of Tal Afar on the Syria border, the Associated Press reported Friday.
With the Iraqi army is currently involved in the battle to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, the country’s second largest city, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been given free reign over Tal Afar’s “western approach, where they hope to establish a long-term presence and influence,” the AP noted.
The Shiite troops are advancing against ISIS under flags bearing “the image of Imam Hussein, the revered Shiite figure emblematic of ancient suffering and oppression at the hands of Sunni Muslims.” This display of sectarian loyalty has alarmed Iraqi minorities, especially in Tal Afar.
While Iraqi officials insist that it is the army will lead the assault on Tal Afar, “state-sanctioned Shiite militias and army units aligned with their cause [currently] run the show,” the AP reported.
Sunni Turkmen, the majority of Tel Afar’s population, have reason to fear the PMF, which have been previously accused of “extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing, and other abuses against civilians.” While the PMF deny these charges, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claims that there are ongoing investigations into their human rights violations and that PMF members have been sentenced to death and imprisoned for past abuses.
“Iranian support for the [PMF] also raises concerns it may be modeled after that country’s Revolutionary Guard and its client in Lebanon, Hezbollah, armed organizations that also dominate politics,” the AP added. “The militiamen also maintain a popular animosity toward Israel and America, a staple of Iranian-inspired Shiite mass mobilization across the region.”
A recent France24 News feature highlighted the misgivings Sunni residents near Tal Afar hold regarding the PMF’s sectarian leanings.
“In the past the Shi’a militias have committed crimes against the Sunni population of the cities they’ve freed,” the segment noted.
Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a PMF leader who was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2009 for targeting American and coalition forces in Iraq, told France24 News that the militias would go on to fight in Syria if necessary. “With these regional aspirations and newly recognized by parliament, the Popular Mobilization Units’ influence is undoubtedly on the rise, something that is widely perceived as a threat by Iraq’s Sunni population,” the report concluded.
The close ties between Iran and the PMF, which the Associated Press called “just as brutal” as ISIS in 2014, have been extensively documented. Al-Mohandis, who U.S. officials have accused of bombing the American and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983, is a deputy of IRGC-Qods Force chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, declared in July that there was strong evidence that the PMF committed atrocities in the battle for Fallujah.
The growing strength and influence of the PMF in both Iraq and Syria is stoking fears that Iran is creating a “Shiite Crescent” to project its power throughout the Middle East.
[Photo: France 24 English / YouTube ]