Popular Mobilization Units - Heroes or Villains?

Jawad al-Shammari, media director at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Iraq, told Al-Monitor, “This type of fighter is not an exceptional case.”

Saudi newspaper Al-Jazirah published an article June 3 by Saudi writer Jasser al-Jasser stating, “Members of the sectarian Popular Mobilization Units have set fire to the body of an Iraqi citizen who hails from the city of Fallujah, north of Baghdad.” Wahhabism, which is anti-Shiite, is dominant in Saudi Arabia.

Opponents of the Popular Mobilization Units — Sunnis inside or outside Iraq — deem the forces a “sectarian” militia. This was stated in an article by Jordanian writer Yasser al-Zaatreh, a Sunni, published in April in the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour, in which he wrote, “The Popular Mobilization Units are simply militias comprising many unemployed people who were enlisted and driven by horrible sectarian hatred."

Proponents of the Popular Mobilization Units — the overwhelming majority of whose fighters are Shiite — described these units as a “fighting national force” in a May 26 statement by Citizen Coalition member of parliament Salim Shawki, a Shiite, who said “the Popular Mobilization Units constitute a national strength.”

Political parties in Iraq, such as Sunni member of parliament for the National Union of Forces Dhafer al-Ani, attacked the Popular Mobilization Units, calling them "sectarian.”

Popular Mobilization Units spokesman Karim Shaalan, a Shiite, said in November 2014 that the “Popular Mobilization Units prevented the fall of Baghdad.”

Independent social affairs analyst Ali Abu Iraq told Al-Monitor, “The behavior of any fighter on the front lines is a reflection of social upbringing and religious faith.”

He said, “The Popular Mobilization Units include nonprofessional fighters as well as groups that received a high level of training, and these are professional and ideological fighters who fight based on sectarian and political agendas.”