Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a decree on Thursday formalizing the inclusion of Shi’ite paramilitary groups in the country’s security forces.
According to the decree, members of the Shi’ite militias, an assortment of militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), which are mostly backed and trained by Iran, will be granted many of the same rights as members the military.
The power to spend or withhold money on these units that contain 60,000 members and oversee the commanders and troops by training them (and firing them) and supervising them could gradually squeeze the pro-Iranian elements out of the units.
Hopefully Western military advisors are involved in this effort to de-fang the threat the PMF pose to Iraqi sovereignty and enable Iraq to resist Iranian pressure to fall into Iran's orbit.
