Iraqi police who fought for tribal PMUs won't return to force
Local Iraqi police officers who joined the Popular Mobilization Units to fight the Islamic State seem to have no intention of returning to their old jobs.
SHIRQAT, Iraq — Along the Tigris River cutting through the town of Shirqat, where attacks from Islamic State fighters occupying the eastern section were frequent until late last year, taillights of vehicles heading to buy bootleg liquor now light up the western bank at dusk.
The eastern side of the city was retaken in late September, roughly a year after the western bank. Recent attacks near Shirqat on the family of a local sheikh and others, however, underscore persisting risk.
Several of the men in the local Sunni-majority Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) told Al-Monitor in an interview at their base that they had left the local police forces to fight under their tribal sheikh. They said they would not go back to being part of the Interior Ministry police forces.
The PMU was incorporated into the national security forces and officially answer to the prime minister’s office, but often much power remains in individual leaders’ hands.
