Iraq's parliament
approved a law on Saturday that will transform Popular Mobilisation forces, a
mostly Iranian-backed coalition of Shi'ite militias that played a role in
fighting Islamic State, into a legal and separate military corps.
Disagreements over
the paramilitary units are complicating efforts to pull Iraq together as forces
battle to defeat Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group that overran a
third of the country in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" that spans
parts of Syria.
All the Shi'ite
blocks in parliament voted for the bill in a session boycotted by lawmakers
from the Sunni minority who object to the existence of armed forces outside the
army and police.
Popular
Mobilisation, or Hashid Shaabi in Arabic, was accused of abuses against Sunni
civilians in towns and villages retaken from Islamic State, according to
international human rights groups and the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner.
"I don't
understand why we need to have an alternative force to the army and the
police," said Sunni member of parliament (MP) Raad al-Dahlaki. "As it
stands now, it would constitute something that looks like Iran's Revolutionary
Guard," he added.
Iraqi forces started
an offensive on Oct. 17 to capture Mosul, Islamic State's last major city
stronghold in Iraq, with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.
Kurdish and Popular Mobilisation forces are supporting the offensive.
The law does not say
how many fighters will be incorporated under the legalized Popular Mobilisation
corps, which currently claims to have more than 110,000 fighters, or define the
breakdown between members from the different communities.
The government says
between 25,000 and 30,000 members of the Hashid are Sunni tribal fighters and
nearly all the rest are Shi'ites, with a few Yazidi and Christian units.
The Kurds have their
own military force, called Peshmerga, deployed in the Kurdish autonomous area
in northern Iraq.
The law provides for
Popular Mobilisation to report directly to the prime minister, who is a Shi'ite
under Iraq's governing system that split top state positions between the
different communities after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.
The army reports to
the defense minister, who is traditionally a Sunni, although the position has
been vacant since the sacking by parliament of Khaled al-Obeidi in August.
Reuters
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