Popular Mobilization Units - Heroes or Villains?

Abu Iraq added, “Those who heeded Sistani’s fatwa are fighting for the implementation of a religious duty based on their belief.”

The fact that the Popular Mobilization Units are gaining clout indicates that they have exceeded the role they were initially set up to play — namely deterring IS — and might be playing a political role in the future.

This view was underlined by the former spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, Mohammed Hassan al-Musawi, who told Al-Monitor, “The Popular Mobilization Units will be the political alternative for the Shiite National Alliance.

Despite the fact that the [Popular Mobilization Units] now represent a military system, their future will be similar to the future of Hezbollah in Lebanon as they will be fighters with a political arm.”

It seems that there are political and sectarian factors that have started to overshadow the perception of the Popular Mobilization Units, which are turning these fighting factions into a political controversy to be added to a panoply of other issues that are not agreed upon in Iraq, such as the disputed regions, which party should be held responsible for the fall of Mosul and the sharing of the oil wealth.