Baghdad sees Return of Shia Extremist Militias

The League of Righteous evolved from out of the huge Mahdi Army, the military group led by cleric Sadr al-Muqtada. The Mahdi Army was held responsible for much of the violence against American troops as well as the conflicts that nearly plunged Iraq into a sectarian, civil war following the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.

However over the years, the Sadrist movement has disarmed and emerged as a major political force. The League itself was an off shoot of the Mahdi Army that arrived in concrete form when al-Sadr decided to disarm the Mahdi Army in 2007.

Before the declaration of the ceasefire in 2007, the League of the Righteous, which had existed since around 2004 under different monikers, was described by a senior aide to al-Sadr as a “special task force”. There were a number of such special Shiite forces active at the time, many of them funded, or otherwise supported, by Iran.

Over the past few years, tensions between the now-more mainstream Sadrist movement and the League have continued to grow. At one stage there were clashes between the groups on an almost daily basis. And Prime Minister al-Maliki has even bragged in speeches about how he is not acting in a sectarian way because he has used the League to deal with other Shiite Muslim militias.

Up until recently the extremist League’s role, fighting on behalf of the Iraqi government, was a secret, albeit a fairly open one. However now League members are even more open about publicizing their activities. The League’s official website often carries statements lauding the League’s achievements in battle.

“Most of us hate the League,” Iraqi army officer, Amir al-Rubaie, told NIQASH. “Weapons should only be carried by the official security forces, not by these irregular militias.”

Having said that, he did agree that the League were formidable fighters. “They do not withdraw and they fight furiously,” he admitted. “And the League knows how to fight a street war and inside fortified areas. The regular army doesn’t have as much experience in this kind of fighting.”