In June 2014, as ISIS captured Mosul, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a fatwa of wajib kifai - collective obligation - urging Iraqis to defend the country. Hundreds of thousands answered. From that mobilisation rose Shia armed groups - Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba - brought under the Popular Mobilisation Forces or Hashd al-Shaabi umbrella for coordination under US air cover. They helped defeat ISIS but refused to disarm afterwards.
Today, PMF is 240,000 fighters strong with a $3.4 billion annual budget. Historically it had three strands: Sistani-aligned shrine units, Sadrists' Saraya al-Salam, and Iran-aligned factions like Badr Organisation, Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat. The Sistani units broke away in 2020 and now report to the commander-in-chief. The most powerful remain Iran-backed, including Saraya al-Salam under Muqtada al-Sadr, the most influential Shia cleric in post-war Iraq who once led the Mahdi Army against US troops.
Read more - Iraq Farewell
The PMF is not just military. In 2016, Parliament institutionalised it as an independent organisation within the Iraqi armed forces but allowed it to keep command structures. Its leaders formed political parties - Badr and others contested elections as Fatah Alliance in 2018, now 18 and 27 seats respectively. The Sadrist movement has a separate political organisation, the National Shia Movement.
Since the US bombed Iran on February 28, 2026, Iran-aligned PMF factions carried out some 600 attacks on US forces, prompting US airstrikes. After US withdrawal, Prime Minister al-Zaidi said demobilisation began and pushed deadline to June 2027. Some like Saraya al-Salam agreed to hand over weapons; Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba resist, saying resistance will continue as long as US presence in the region remains.
Read more - Geopolitical Heat, Financial Shock
For India, which has deep energy ties with Iraq and Iran and hosts a large diaspora in the Gulf, any escalation between Tehran and Washington will have direct impact on oil prices and regional stability.
Tags: #Iraq #PMF #HashdAIShaabi #Iran #USWithdrawal #Sistani #MiddleEast #Geopolitics #ShiaMilitia #IndiaEnergySecurity