ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, the Imam Ali Battalions, announced on Tuesday that it will formally sever its structural ties with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and restrict its weapons to state control. The move came shortly after another influential faction, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, made a similar announcement earlier in the day.
“Out of national responsibility, to preserve the gains of victory, to enhance national sovereignty, and from the standpoint of legal responsibility, the leadership of the Imam Ali Battalions has decided to sever ties with the formations of the Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF],” the group said in a statement.
The group added that it would “immediately initiate measures to confine weapons to the hands of the state,” stressing that “our responsibility today requires confining weapons to the hands of the state, strengthening security institutions, and enforcing the rule of law.”
It further attributed its decision to “national desire and the decision of the brothers in the [Shiite] Coordination Framework.”
Earlier in the day, the Coordination Framework announced its support for the newly elected Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s push to “restrict arms to state control and separate the Popular Mobilization Forces Authority from all political, partisan, and social frameworks, in line with the Iraqi Constitution… to ensure continued cooperation between the Iraqi government and the international community.”
The alliance of Shiite parties further affirmed that the “decision of war and peace is a sovereign national decision that belongs to the Iraqi people through its constitutional institutions represented by the House of Representatives and the elected government exclusively, and that any action outside this framework constitutes a violation of the law and the principles of the constitutional state.”
The Imam Ali Battalions also announced on Tuesday the formation of three committees to oversee “the inventory, handover, and transfer of responsibilities under the supervision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,” referring to the Iraqi prime minister.
Moreover, another committee would be formed to support “the families of [the group’s] martyrs and the wounded,” and a third committee to manage “the affairs of personnel and affiliates, including their reintegration into state institutions,” the group said.
In his inaugural address before the Iraqi parliament in mid-May, Prime Minister Zaidi had vowed security reform, including through “confining weapons under state control,” adding that he would enhance the capabilities of security forces and consolidate citizens’ “confidence in democracy.”
Last week, several Coordination Framework officials told Rudaw that the prime minister had been engaging in dialogue with armed groups operating outside the PMF to bring their weapons under state control.
The PMF was established in 2014 during the Islamic State group (ISIS) blitz, which saw the group seize control of large parts of Iraq’s north and west.
Created in response to a religious edict, fatwa, by Iraq’s highest Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the PMF was initially an umbrella organization of roughly 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups, with approximately 250,000 members.
While the PMF is a state‑funded institution, it notably includes factions widely believed to overlap with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ which have, since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, carried out attacks against alleged US targets in the region in support of Tehran, often operating through shadow groups under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI).
The IRI emerged in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, with its core overlap within the PMF including Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada armed groups.
Importantly, the decision by the Imam Ali Battalions came shortly after Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq on Tuesday also vowed to place its personnel and weapons under state authority.
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