Iraq’s PMF demonstrates tanks and weapons at a grand ceremony to commemorate | War Stories

Thousands of members of the Iraqi National Defense Force (PMF) have staged a demonstration to show off tanks and rocket launchers, the largest demonstration of military power since the umbrella organization of several Muslim Shia security forces.

The event on Saturday at a military base in Diyala, eastern Iraq, was the seventh memorial held by the PMF, which was established after a call in 2014 by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to end the ISIL (ISIS) militant group’s attack.

At the time, ISIL had a third of the Iraqi territory and the PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi, was instrumental in helping the US-backed Iraqi military force win in 2017.

The program, which took place at Camp Ashraf, saw Russian tanks, boats and local rocket launchers descend on the highway. Iranian-made weapons, including drones, were also shown at an event broadcast on Iraqi television and shown by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the country’s top official.

“I appreciate your sacrifices, as well as the commitment of the Iraqi army” in fighting the ISIL, says al-Kadhimi, warning of any “insurgency” in the PMF, but without comment.

The establishment of the PMF established a government-sanctioned organization especially the Iranian-backed Muslim Shia militia.

Some analysts say it was Iran’s coercion that led the Iraqi government to include the PMF in the state security apparatus in 2016, which gave the militants heavy weapons and vast wealth. In 2019 alone, the PMF received $ 2.16bn from the Iraqi national budget.

In recent years, Iran’s allies, the most powerful forces in the PMF, have expanded their military, political, and economic power and have attacked the remaining 2,500 US settlements in Iraq.

It has partners in parliament and the state and has the power to control other government agencies, including the security services.

The groups are also accused of killing protesters who took to the streets in late 2019 to demand the removal of Iraqi rulers. The groups refuse to take part in the killings.

Al-Kadhimi, the US prime minister, has tried to oust Iran-backed groups – but to no avail, since the militants are part of the government.

In May, the government arrested the PMF leader in Anbar province, shortly before his release without charge.

Imran Khan of Al Jazeera, a spokesman from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, said the demonstration was “extremely difficult”.

“The prime minister does not want them in Baghdad, which is where they want to do this (in the global zone, called the Green Zone) because they think it is a manifestation of Iran’s power within Iraq itself,” Khan said.

Participants in the demonstrations were the PMF and the Yazidi militia, who marched in their traditional white robes, as well as Christian and Sunni Muslim groups.

The protesters carried placards of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a high-ranking official who was killed in a US air strike last year outside Baghdad airport. The strike also saw the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleiman in the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, whose assassination nearly forced Iran and the US into war.

However, although the PMF has often glorified the image of Solomon along with al-Muhandis in battlefields on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, images of the Iranian leader were not present at the ceremony – perhaps in an attempt to test the unity of various militant groups. .

Iran’s powerful allies in the PMF are stepping up their military, political and economic power and are attacking the remaining 2,500 US military bases in Iraq [Hashed al-Shaabi Media/Handout/AFP]