Iraq’s Shiite militias try to convert military victory into political power
At the entrance to one of Baghdad’s biggest amusement parks is an election banner for Hadi al-Amiri, senior commander of the mainly Shiite militias that helped vanquish Islamic State jihadists and now aim to win Iraqis’ votes.
A guard at the gate shrugs at the banner’s having been given such prominent placement, where hundreds of thousands of voters will see it before parliamentary elections on May 12.
“They own the place,” laughs the guard, tongue-in-cheek, about Iraq’s ubiquitous militias, when asked about the banner at a park run by the Baghdad municipality. “They own everything, so they are free to put it here.”
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as , don’t “own” everything in Iraq. But since being formed from volunteers in mid-2014 to help repel the ISIS invasion, the militias – originally called to arms by a from Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, and beneficiaries of support and advisers from Iran – have seen their numbers
Lots of 'street cred''Who liberated the country?'Fine line on IranManifestation of 'things that are wrong'