A vital force that helped defeat the Islamic State group, or a dangerous tool of Iran?

Fighters from Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi are a controversial irregular element battling on the country's frontlines.

The organisation formed in 2014 after the country's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged citizens to take up arms against IS jihadists who had swept aside government forces and seized much of northern Iraq.

Bringing together a dizzying array of paramilitary groups under the command of Iraq's prime minister, the Hashed has since played a key role in battles against IS and more recently against Kurdish forces.

But the Shiite-dominated alliance remains deeply divisive and has been accused of a wave of abuses.

Ahead of a visit to Baghdad this week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took a swipe at Tehran's perceived influence over the Hashed by insisting that Iranian militias in Iraq should "go home".

But Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi stepped up to defend them, insisting the alliance is made up of "Iraqis who have fought terrorism, defended their country and made sacrifices".

- Martyrs or puppets? -

Known in English as the Popular Mobilisation Units, the various forces within the Hashed can field somewhere between 60,000 and 140,000 fighters.

Iraq's parliament classes it as a state force operating within the country's constitution.

While it includes some Christian and Sunni Muslim forces, the umbrella group is dominated by powerful Shiite militias such as Kataeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Badr organisation.

"To many, these martyrs have given up their lives in defence of their country," the Carnegie Middle East Center said in an April report.

But "to many critics, the (Hashed) symbolises Iranian and Shia efforts to exercise supremacy over Iraq."

It said that while the group is riven with internal rivalries, leaders have regularly met with Qassem Suleimani, the powerful commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations division.

That connection was made public in July, when the Hashed's number two Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis appeared on Iranian TV speaking Farsi and pledging allegiance to Suleimani.

   - 'Part of the problem'   -

As the Hashed battled across Iraq to seize territory from IS, they were frequently accused of carrying out brutal abuses.

Residents of Sunni-dominated towns that had fallen under jihadist control often feared their arrival.

As US-backed Iraqi forces regrouped and strengthened after their catastrophic collapse in the the face of IS in 2014, the Hashed were increasingly sidelined.

They were kept away from the gruelling battle for IS bastion Mosul and focused instead on the smaller town of Tal Afar.

Now, as the fight to oust IS from territories it seized in 2014 draws to a close, the authorities face a conundrum: what to do with the Hashed?

As the jihadists are driven back into a dwindling rump territory on the border with Syria, the group's initial reason for being appears to be fading.

"The (Hashed) is now as much part of the problem as part of the solution," Carnegie wrote.

"Many who perceived the (Hashed) to be a security asset and a saviour in the struggle against (IS) in 2014, when the Iraqi army was in shambles, now view it as more of a liability and menace."

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Iraq's Abadi: 'hero' who tackled mission impossible
Baghdad (AFP) Oct 22, 2017
When Haider al-Abadi was tasked with forming a new Iraqi government in August 2014, just weeks after a lightning offensive by the Islamic State group, many believed he would fail. Three years later, the stocky prime minister with a close-cut white beard has transformed what many in Iraq considered "mission impossible" into a success story. He has rebuilt the crumbling armed forces, chase ... read more

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