Iraq’s Sunni Lawmakers to Challenge Legal Recognition of Shiite Militias
Iraq’s Sunni lawmakers pledged on Sunday to challenge in court a newly passed law that formalizes the combat role of Iranian-backed Shiite militias, one of the country’s more powerful adversaries of Islamic State. The legislation legally empowers the militias and makes them ultimately answerable to Iraq’s prime minister, but it also allows groups that have […]Tamer El-Ghobashy and Ghassan Adnan report for The Wall Street Journal:
Iraq’s Sunni lawmakers pledged on Sunday to challenge in court a newly passed law that formalizes the combat role of Iranian-backed Shiite militias, one of the country’s more powerful adversaries of Islamic State.
The legislation legally empowers the militias and makes them ultimately answerable to Iraq’s prime minister, but it also allows groups that have been accused of abuses against Sunnis to maintain command structures separate from the nation’s police and military.
The move raises questions of who will oversee the militias on the battlefield and feeds into criticism from Sunnis that such divisions threaten to partition the country along sectarian lines.
