Perhaps, the highest voice rising in Iraq is the sound of Iran, according to Arab and Western analyzes and reports, taking into consideration that Iran supports the successive governments in Iraq since the US occupation of Iraq in 9April – 2003and interfere in setting it in one way or another , that it had a strong military voice inside Iraq, too, and pumped a huge money, so there is no doubt that it had a benefit from all of this to put Iraq in the square of its national security as the front garden of it from one hand, and as one of the Gulf states on the other hand. Of course Iran did not have a full control over Iraq . It is not possible to talk about this, but Iran is trying to impose its hegemony on the entire Iraqi soil, as it has succeeded in some cases in the control of entire sectors and in other cases did not succeed, but it is well-deserved to become a prominent player on the Iraqi territory at present time .In this context , the popular militias, the crowd , was considered as one of the most important papers in the Iraqi scene since June of 2014 and to this day. In this context , we wonder about the background on which , the crowd established , and the most important components of it , and its relationship with Iran, and what are the problems facing it, and finally its role in Iran’s security, military and political strategy toward Iraq?
In view of the sudden security shift in the Iraqi scene, which appeared in June of last year concerning the control of the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” over the city of Mosul, the Iranians realized the seriousness of this shift that would threaten its hegemony over Iraq, so instructed Iraqi militias in Syria, to return to Iraq and to participate with government forces in fighting organization “Daash”
In a supportive step of this trend , t he religious authority in Iraq gave fatwa on “righteous jihad” in the June 13, 2014 to confront the organization of the Islamic state attacks . thus the popular crowd forces was established . It is a paramilitary forces belong to the Shiite component appeared in the Iraqi scene..
The popular crowd consists of young Iraqi Shiite distributed to more than 42 factions, some of those factions are composed of about one million people and the other comprising a few hundred . Observers attribute the large number of factions that make up the popular crowd to the desire to have an authoritarian. And military privilege . Factions of the popular crowd are divided into two parts: the first is the large known factions such as the Badr Organization and the Hezbollah Brigades and the League of the Righteous and Peace Brigades . and others . They are organizations linked ideologically, organizationally and financially directly with Iranians, and this poses a threat to the future of those and their role in the existing political conflict in the country. Forces
The second section is the people who listened to the call of the religious authority after the fall of Mosul to the state organization in June 2014 and joined the army and police sectors in Baghdad belt and in other provinces, according to a member of the parliamentary security committee Ammar Tohme.
To gain the trust of militias “popular crowd” ,the Iraqi government has allocated ,in a few days ago, part of the federal state budget of 2015 to support the armed militias so Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered in a statement issued by the Council of Ministers, to allocate a US $ 60 million to build the capacity of “popular crowd”, and allocate a portion of the budget for this purpose. Every individual in the popular crowd is to receive of US $ 500 per month paid by the Iraqi government, which stipulated that each faction, to receive financial support, to be a brigade-size and has a clear structure. their factions also receive a lot of support from businessmen Al- Shiites. Brigades of peace Saraya which belong to Mr. Muqtada al-Sadr and and Saraya of holy shrines consisting of servants (legitimate sense) the most funding Shiite shrines .The majority of Iraqi businessmen in favor of al-Sadr after the number of popular crowd fighters, but it is estimated of tens of thousands, and the leading figure in the formation of a “Saraya Jihad”, who is on the outskirts of Samarra, explains that allocations of the popular crowd :”elements of the crowd receive salaries monthly and food allowance, and regarding the holidays enjoyed by fighter to be defined according to the military sectors, which they belong to and the security situation in it . The elements of the crowd are working in a manner estimated to 50 percent working and 50 percent break, while receiving health care by medical units deployed by the Ministry of Health in areas where the popular crowd exists. “
As for Iran’s relationship with the popular crowd could be argued, is headed by Jamal Mohammed Jaafar, known for his nom de guerre, Abu Mahdi Mohandes, Iraqi officials says that he is the right hand of the commander of the Quds Force , Qassem Soleimani, and some of the popular crowd fighters praised and considering him as a commander of all the forces that his word was considered as sword on them . In spite of the deny of the Iraqi government to the presence of Iranian support for these militias, however, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi finally forced to admit that Iran provide “substantial support” for the popular crowd militias allied with Iraqi forces, and a leader of the national coalition headed by Iyad Allawi has revealed and stressed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is the ones who equipped the popular crowd militias with weapons and combat equipment and financial support.
As several news agencies published pictures of the Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, accompanied by members of the militias in the popular crowd Hadi Ameri, sources confirmed that Soleimani is supervised by himself on the movements of these militias. Iranians advisors , Who are in Iraq, helped the Iraqis in everything, from the tactical aid to provide reconnaissance capabilities and wireless signal using drones to conduct an electronic survey and pick up radio communications and signal, and a leading Iraqis warns that the Iranian plan is to increase the numbers of “the crowd” forces , to double the current number , Because it is required after the elimination of “Daash” in Iraq to return to the strengthening of sectarian state that was established by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Iranian support for the popular crowd units referred to above ,has contributed in achieving victories against Iraqi organization «Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant» in the Iraqi arena.
As for the political objective of Iran in support of the popular crowd can be summarized as the following: that the combat elements on behalf of Iran will seek to exploit its leading role in the war to dominate the Iraqi provincial elections in 2017 and parliamentary elections in 2018. If culminated in pursuit of this success, the political system may fall , surpassing the technocrats and moderate Shiites, including Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-abadi ..
As in the elections of other countries, money here also have a role in the iraqi . political competition .The US Vice-President Joe Biden has estimated that in the parliamentary elections in 2010, Iran has spent $ 100 million to support Iraqi combat elements on its behalf . In the coming years, Iran could unleash a wave of media campaigns sponsored by the electoral propaganda on the street level of support for the leaders of «units of the popular crowd» who turned to be -candidates for the election on a broader scale .
The pumping of money into Iran’s efforts to strengthen its influence – including the provision of electricity to the Iraqi borders provinces at subsidized prices, and the exploitation of government officials and Shiite leaders to their influence, and investments linked to the pilgrimage may be a final blow to the moderates who are struggling to maintain the strategic independence of Iraq in the face of Iranian severe pressure ..
As for the goal of Iran’s military future entrusted to the militias of popular crowd was in incorporating them into the Iraqi army after the elimination of the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant “Daash” and thus reproduced Hezbollah’s experience in Lebanon to apply in Iraq but in different way . The party in Lebanon is one of the currents powerful strike in the non-government Lebanese political system, but in the case of Iraq, these militias will be the backbone of the government of the Iraqi political system, in one of the most important joints of the Iraqi state, namely, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, and thus , Iran will have a reserve and substitute army to defend its regional interests outside its territory. Thus completing the armed militias rings affiliated to Iran with her priorities of these countries: Iraq – militia under the flavor of the National Army , Syria – National Defence Forces and Lebanon- militia of Hezbollah.
Recently, several problems have emerged in the popular militias within the crowd, which may affect the project in Iran that is : Iraq is suffering from these problems such as non-payment of salaries and the lack of provisioning and military equipments. In this context, the military commander in Saraya of the Shrines revealing that there is a clear distinction between the forces linked to Iran and other forces, in terms of receiving support and aid provided by Iran in the war against Daash whereas , we have a simple potential through what they offer to us by the Iraqi government and holy shrines, but the Badr Brigades and Alasaib and Hezbollah enjoys a position better than us, and basically is not dependent on the government and the Iraqi army .
A number of affiliates to the “popular crowd” forces took part in the demonstrations in Baghdad by 21 August / August to demand the payment of accumulated salaries for several months . The weak support and delays in the payment of salaries led to reduce the proportion of volunteers in combat units which is not associated with militias belonging to Iran..
And for this reason, it can be attributed to the fights in Tikrit , according to media sources, that during the fighting in Tikrit in March of this year, the United States began to open the doors of communication with some of the”popular crowd” forces which is not affiliated to Iran .The expansion of this communications and provide greater support to non-affiliated forces is to be considered very necessary to find an internal balance of forces within the crowd, and prevent Iran to control of those forces and use them as a paper for the benefit of its regional agenda.
So Iran pressed through its representative in Iraq, Qassem Soleimani on the government of Haider al-Abadi to non-payment of salaries to those militias who are not subject to it, especially the Iranian government felt that these militias were no longer have any effectiveness in the arena of confrontation with the state organization and they began to leave the battlefield and stay in their provinces So the Iraqi government stop giving the salaries for those militias as an Introduction to dispense with their services, and not to annex them in the formations of the future Iraqi army that Iran wants to be a sincere of loyalty to the policy of clerical rule in Iraq, to complete its expansion in the Levant and towards the eastern Mediterranean.
Muammar Faisal Kholi
Links Research and Strategic Studies Center