Popular Mobilization Units
According to Faleh A. Jabar and Renad Mansour for the Carnegie Middle East Center, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki used these forces to combat the emergence of ISIL and maintain his influence in predominantly Sunni areas.[25]
The People’s Mobilization Forces (PMF) were formed by the Iraqi government on 15 June 2014 after top Iraqi Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani’s non-sectarian[25] fatwa on "Sufficiency Jihad" on 13 June.[1] The fatwa called for defending Iraqi cities, particularly Baghdad, and to participate in the counter-offensive against ISIL, following the Fall of Mosul on 10 June 2014.[1][30] The forces brought together a number of Shi’ite militias, most of which receive direct support from Iran, along with a small number of Sunni tribesmen by uniting existing militias under the "People’s Mobilization Committee" of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior in June 2014.[31] The forces would fall under the umbrella of the state’s security services and within the legal frameworks and practices of the Ministry of Interior. On 19 December 2016, Iraqi President Fuad Masum approved a law passed by parliament in November that incorporated PMU in the country’s armed forces. With this incorporation, the PMU are now subject to the supreme commander of the national armed forces and will no longer be affiliated to any political or social group.[32] The PMU became regarded as an official force with similar rights as those of the regular army.[33] In the course of events, some of these groups embarked on a different path, operating independently.[34]
On 21 March 2017, the PMU announced the launch of a special forces course, in order to create a Special Forces Division. The training program covered a variety of missions with direction from the Iraqi Special Operations Forces.[35] On December 11, 2017, the PMU began to be entirely consolidated under the Iraqi Armed Forces, following a call by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to integrate.[26] However, as late as May 2018, this integration had yet to take place, and PMF members remained without the same wages and privileges as soldiers in the regular Iraqi Armed Forces.[36]
According to some sources, the Popular Mobilization Forces have made a fundamental difference on the battlefield, as they have undermined the superiority of ISIL at the level of guerrilla warfare, as well as at the level of the psychological operations.
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Community Factions Project (CFP) — Steam Workshop
Hidden Identity Pack v2 [Reupload] — Steam Workshop
[R] Syrian and Iraqi civil war insignia — Steam Workshop
