Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are supposed to be handing over their arms to the government, as a September 30 deadline for US troops withdrawing looms. The concept is that Iraq will be able to rein in the militias and that any excuse they have to keep their arms to oppose the US will have evaporated.
This is the policy of the new government of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. However, he now has to face a new uphill struggle as the militias seek to create new conditions for their disarmament.
It’s important to understand there are more than a dozen militias with some 100,000 armed men in Iraq. Most are linked closely to Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Some have roots in the 1980s, when Iran was backed by some local Shi’ites in its war with Iraq. Many have grown over the last decades, after they were mobilized during the war on ISIS to then become an official paramilitary group called the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Some of them are also part of another umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI). The IRI is an Iranian-backed creation that is used to attack the US, Israel, and others. It is basically a way for the militias to conduct terrorist activity under the banner of “resistance” while also wearing the hat of government troops under the PMF.
Now, one of the powerful militias, Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, which is part of the IRI, said on Saturday “that its participation in efforts to bring weapons under state control would depend on meeting 10 conditions, including the withdrawal of US and Turkish forces from Iraq,” Shafaq news in Iraq noted.
Militias demand new conditions to disarm
Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) is one of the most prominent Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq. Established in 2013, the group has close ties to the IRGC's Quds Force and has operated both in Iraq and Syria. It emerged during the Syrian civil war, supporting the Assad regime, and later became an important component of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), where it is associated with the 14th PMF Brigade.
The group demands the complete US withdrawal of forces. It also wants Turkey to withdraw forces from northern Iraq. In addition, it wants a law passed that preserves the rights of the PMF.
“The group also called for full federal control over Iraqi territory, stronger air defenses equipped with advanced systems operated solely under Iraqi authority, and the removal of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters and Turkish troops from northern Iraq ‘to eliminate the justification for Turkish attacks,’” Shafaq added. “Other conditions included placing the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s borders under Iraqi army control, and removing Iranian opposition groups from their positions.”
Like several other PMF factions, KSS played a role in the campaign against ISIS after 2014, fighting alongside Iraqi security forces. The group has also supported Iran's broader regional agenda, maintaining close coordination with other Iranian-backed militias, including Kata'ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba.
US designated group as terror organization
On November 17, 2023, the US Department of State designated Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada and its secretary-general, Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji (Abu Ala al-Walai), as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order 13224. The US says the group had planned and supported attacks against US personnel and Coalition forces in Iraq.
In 2026, the Treasury Department sanctioned additional militia commanders affiliated with the group, while the State Department's Rewards for Justice program offered a reward for information on its leader.
The goal of the KSS demands is to make it harder for Iraq to disarm the group. The powerful Badr Organization, which is part of the PMF, has said there will be no infighting regarding the disarmament. This means if the groups refuse to disarm, Iraq will take a wait-and-see approach. The groups have made claims that they might hand over their arms to the PMF. Since they are already part of the PMF, this is essentially a shell game of pretending the arms have been moved, when the arms remain with the groups.