Kurdish civilians clashed with militias from the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi in Makhmour district, southwest of Erbil, like reported by basnews.com.

According to a source from the town, who wished to remain anonymous for security measures, the clashes erupted after a group of militias ordered meals at a restaurant and declined to pay.

The source said that the restaurant owner entered into a fight as it was not the first time the militias refused to pay for what they ordered.

BasNews has learned that the restaurant owner was later arrested by the militias, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced an unexpected political alliance with the leader of an Iranian-aligned militia. Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, was set to join Abadi’s grand coalition of political parties slated to run for election in May, like reported by foreignpolicy.com.

The alliance provoked a swift backlash from across Iraq’s political spectrum. Long seen as a nationalist by Western governments, the prime minister was traditionally viewed as Amiri’s political enemy. Just days earlier, the two were exchanging slurs and heated accusations, with Abadi singling out militias like those allied to Amiri for particularly harsh criticism.

While the proposed coalition dissolved only a day later, the move stoked concern within the U.S. and other Western governments — which have long seen factions of the so-called Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), such as Badr, as an Iranian fifth column — intent on destabilizing the central government.

“I tend to see this through the lens of what I assume to be Iran’s grand strategy for the region,” said Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. “You create, fund, organize, and train nonstate actors that will follow your direction and not that of those ostensibly running the country.”

As the fight against the Islamic State winds down, the issue of the PMF has only grown in prominence — pitting international fears of sectarian tension and growing Iranian influence in Iraq against powerfully entrenched political and military forces within the country.

Largely formed after 2014, the PMF themselves are a loose assortment of militias that rose up in response to the Islamic State’s drive through the country. While some of the most powerful and influential groups are indeed Shiite and Iranian-backed, including Badr, many are small local units that responded to nationalist calls from powerful religious figures such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

And not all are linked to Tehran, according to the U.S. military.

“PMF is a catch-all term,” said Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Defense Department spokesman. “There are Christian PMF, Yazidi PMF, and Shiite PMFs that are not affiliated with Iran.”

Now that active fighting in much of the country has subsided though, many of these militia units, especially on the local level, continue to provide support to the overstretched Iraqi Army. “The police and army are just spread out across so much of the country,” said Sajad Jiyad, the head of Al-Bayan Center for Planning and Studies, a Baghdad-based think tank. “The PMF aren’t elite units, but they contribute manpower, which is really needed.”

Figuring out an effective formula for demobilizing or incorporating these groups back into the established Iraqi security forces, however, is now rising to the surface as a delicate issue in post-Islamic State Iraq. And U.S. policy, according to some current officials, hasn’t caught up.

“Most of the decisions made in Iraq and Syria over the past several years were driven by the directive to defeat ISIS,” said a congressional foreign-policy aide involved in Iraq policy. “While we have been successful in that aim, our choices then and now have not yet shifted to take into account how we defeat the idea of ISIS in a meaningful way.”

Without a U.S. budget for 2018, American military aid to the Iraqi Army — one of the primary avenues for the United States to exert influence in the process — is also limited. With a full appropriation, military assistance could be conditioned on the demobilization of certain groups. Barring that, the only way for the United States to exert leverage is via “conversations bilaterally through [the State Department] and the military,” another congressional aide said.

Some U.S. policymakers acknowledged the role that the PMF have played over the past several years, as well as the political tightrope that the Iraqi prime minister now has to walk. Many units have been lauded across Iraqi society for the role they played in the defeat of the Islamic State. One U.S. official, who asked not to be identified in order to speak about ongoing discussions, likened it to a moderate Republican candidate balancing rhetoric from a populist Tea Party primary opponent.

“There is a political balance for Abadi between wanting to reintegrate the PMF and demobilizing them completely,” the official told Foreign Policy.

Other current and former officials, however, noted that a failure to effectively integrate parts of the PMF into the formal Iraqi security forces, or disband some militias entirely, could destabilize the government and aggravate sectarian animosity throughout the country.

The May elections provide a potential entry point for some groups with political aspirations. After a call in late 2017 from Ayatollah Sistani for groups to lay down their arms, some simply split their political and military wings. Other PMF leaders, such as Amiri, are former government ministers seeking office once again.

Yet this transition poses a threat to the structure of Iraqi politics and lays the groundwork to legitimize potentially dangerous trends, said Belkis Wille, a senior Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Up until now, when the PMF have committed abuses, they were still considered rogue elements,” she told FP. “Now, if they become political players, that gives them significant cover.”

Iraqi government officials, for their part, downplayed concerns about the dangers posed by the PMF. “There is a law to regulate the PMF’s status as part of the Iraqi security system,” an Iraqi official who asked not to be identified told FP in an email. Some members of the groups “are likely to get back to their normal civilian life or put down their arms.”

Jiyad of Al-Bayan Center echoed this, noting that popular opinion fell decisively on the side of demobilization. “The general public doesn’t want to see leaders running a party and a militia,” he said.

Nevertheless, PMF leaders, especially those who made sacrifices in the fight against the Islamic State, have an undeniable political cache in post-conflict Iraq, even in some Sunni-dominated areas.

“You find that there’s actually more trust for the PMF politicians than for politicians from the Green Zone [the heavily protected government area of Baghdad],” Jiyad said. “The PMF politicians did something. They put skin in the game and fought [the Islamic State].”

An Al-Qaeda suicide bomb attack on a security checkpoint in Yemen’s Shabwa province killed 14 soldiers and wounded others on Tuesday, like reported by arabnews.com.

A security source said that gunmen from the terrorist organization attacked a group of police forces using a suicide bomb and then fired a machine gun and mortars on the location.

The Shabwa elite forces took control of a junction in the province, where an attack took place in early August, and carried out raids and prosecutions of suspected Al-Qaeda members.

Yemen’s state-run news agency says 12 people have been killed and over 130 wounded in clashes between separatists and pro-government forces in the southern port city of Aden, where the government is based, like reported by foxnews.com.

The clashes in Aden erupted on Sunday, after a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired. The separatists are backed by the United Arab Emirates, a key partner in the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government in its war since 2015 against the country’s Houthi rebels.

Meanwhile, the international aid organization OXFAM says the violence forced it to shut down its offices in Aden and the city of Taiz.

Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said late Sunday the coalition’s priority is to deliver humanitarian aid, declining to comment on the violence.

The Iranian-backed militias of Hashd al-Shaabi have invaded at least 800 governmental institutions in the Iraqi provinces which were liberated from the Islamic State (IS), and they refuse to leave, like reported by basnews.com.

A senior official told Al Jadeed, an Iraqi newspaper  “Hezbollah and a number of other militia groups within Iraq have occupied hundreds of public establishments in the liberated cities and they keep denying to leave those governmental units”.

He additionally revealed that the Iraqi government issued a decree to force the militia groups to leave and hand the control of the cities back to the federal security forces.

The Iraqi official stated that the international community has already urged the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi to expel the militia groups of Hashd al-Shaabi from those cities if he intends to continue his administration in the next 4 years, thus the PM made the decision.

Chechen Muslim Şişani, the leader of Jundu Sham group listed as “terrorist” by the US and the UN Security Council, has been reported to have participated in the operation against Afrin along with his group, like reported by anfenglish.com.

An article confirming that other groups are participating in the operation Turkey launched against Afrin along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) under their control has been served by the pro-AKP newspaper Akit. According to the newspaper’s article, Chechen Muslim Şişani, the leader of Jundu Sham formed by the Circassians in Syria, has participated in the operation against Afrin alongside Turkish soldiers with his group.

Şişani is known to be among those who fight against Russian Russian forces in Chechnya and Northern Caucasus in Ingushetia in the Russian Federation and is listed in the terror list prepared by the US and the UN Security Council.

The US defined Şişani as an “international terrorist” in 2014 and included him in the sanctions list. The UN Security Council added Şişani to the terror sanctions list last year.

This man is said to be Murad Margoshvili Muslim Al Şişani born in the former Soviet Union republic Georgia Soviet Socialist Republic. Şişani’s name is listed as one of those fighting against Russian forces in Chechnya and Northern Caucasus in Ingushetia in the Russian Federation.

The Yemeni army has launched a large-scale military operation to liberate areas on the western front of Taiz, Yemen, like reported by spa.gov.

A military source in the command of Taiz military front said the army launched attacks against the positions of Houthi coup militias in the area of Madarat, west of the city.

He reported that raids destroyed a militia tank in Hammam farms behind Mount Han and other sites in Madarat area.

The woman had taken off her white headscarf and waved it around on a stick in protest against clothing restrictions on women in Iran. But now the 31-year-old is believed to have been arrested by police for not covering her hair in public. The woman has not been seen since the video of her standing on the pillar box without her headscarf emerged, like reported by metro.co.uk.

Her protest is believed to have taken place on December 27, a day before economic protests broke out across the country. She was dubbed the ‘Girl of Enghelab Street’ following the protest, gaining many supporters. Other women began copying her act of defiance by filming themselves waving their own headscarves in public.

Using the hashtag #Where_is_she?, supporters have now been sharing videos and images of the woman, demanding authorities to reveal her whereabouts.

One woman, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, believes the woman has been taken into custody. Miss Soutoudeh said she could not find the woman’s name but discovered she was 31 and had a 19-month-old baby. She said: ”What I am certain about is that this lady has been arrested.

‘The witnesses on the scene who saw her being taken away and even accompanied her to the police station gave me this information. I have no contact with her family.’ She added: ‘Women feel they have no control over their bodies. It is a prelude to infringing on all of their rights.’ Under Islamic law, women are required to wear a headscarf and long clothes that cover the arms and legs. If found to break the law, women can be fined up to 500,000 rials (£8.55) and be jailed for up to two months in prison.

But Miss Soutoudeh claims the police regularly go beyond the required punishment by law for not wearing a headscarf. She said women are often taken to a place called ‘Gasht-e Ershad’ [Guidance Patrol], ‘where they can be harshly beaten up.’ ‘The illegal punishment they have had to bear has always been much more than what is foreseen in the law.’

U.S., British and German volunteers who have fought Islamic State with Kurdish-led forces in Syria are in the Afrin region to battle a Turkish assault there, an official said to reuters.com.

The Kurdish Afrin region is being targeted in an assault by the Turkish army and Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army groups.

“There was a desire on the part of the foreign fighters who fought in Raqqa and who are fighting in Deir al-Zor to go to Afrin,” senior SDF official Redur Xelil told Reuters.

He declined to say when the foreigners had gone to Afrin, but said they numbered in the “tens”. “They will wage battles against the Turkish invasion,” Xelil said.

“There are Americans, Britons, Germans, different nationalities from Europe, Asia and America,” Xelil said.

MIT’s Erhan Pekcetin and Aydin Gunel who were captured by HPG last year, spoke about how Turkey supported ISIS, Al Nusa and so-called Free Syrian Army. KCK released the confessions of Pekcetin and Gunel who described how MIT organized camps and trained ISIS and Al Nusra members inside Turkey, like reported by anfenglish.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=985&v=QQRLBfKKwQA

MIT official Gunel said that MIT Special Operations Office deputy director Kemal Eskintan is responsible for coordinating relations between the organization and the gangs. He also gave information about a meeting in Antalya with gang members which was attended by Hakan Fidan, director of MIT.

MIT BOUGHT SPECIAL MERCEDES BUSES AND TRUCKS FOR ISIS AND AL NUSRA

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin spoke about the special white Mercedes buses and trucks bought by the MIT for gang members, weapons and explosives that were sent to Al Nusra and ISIS. MIT administrator Pekçetin said these vehicles bought for the gangs were kept in the MIT central headquarters.

“We have white Mercedes buses, these were bought. We didn’t have them in the organization, they were bought. There are 7 or 8 f of them. They are kept in the headquarters. They were side by side with the MIT trucks in the headquarters. The trucks carrying the equipment, weapons and ammunition were also in the headquarters. They were there in 2012 when I came. I saw them go in and out, fully loaded, at midnight. It actually drew attention that they were leaving the central site in the headquarters at midnight. The Yenimahalle Campus of MIT isn’t that independent. There are buildings next to each other. It’s not a place where trailer trucks can maneuver. There are gaps where there are buildings. It’s not a place where trailer trucks can exit. After a while, those trucks and buses were taken away from the headquarters. The newspaper Sözcü photographed those trucks. They took photographs from Google and wrote that they ‘draw attention’. The trucks and buses were drawing attention. I’m guessing they rented or bought a space in Pursaklar. A friend of mine mentioned that. I believe the weapons, ammunition, trucks and buses are kept there. Because that makes sense. That place is very close to the airport, Pursaklar is 3 or 4 km to the airport. If there is equipment coming in, if military equipment is brought by air from abroad, it can be handled in a very short time without drawing anybody’s attention.”

MIT MEMBER AYHAN ORAN WAS ABDUCTED AND QUESTIONED BY THE MIT

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin said the MIT has many special questioning houses in many cities including Ankara, and spoke about the FETÖ Department set up inside the MIT. Pekçetin said MIT administrator Ayhan Oran, who had been involved in the planning of the Paris Massacre and had more recently disappeared due to his ties to the Gülen movement, was abducted by the MIT itself and gave some important information about the matter:

“We also used the Special Activities Questioning Campus. As the GİB (Güvenlik İstihbarat Başkanlığı – Security Intelligence Directorate). One day later, the FETÖ Department brought in a man. It’s a small place, with 3-4 cells. Then there is the protection area. After the man came in, the GİB Director called us and said, ‘Stay quiet, don’t raise your voice. And turn the cameras off.’ There are cameras that look over the cells. I guessed that this was a member of the organization. I thought it was a man who shouldn’t hear our voice or see our faces, and the cameras were turned off so we wouldn’t see him. But I did see him. It was Ayhan Oran, who organized the Paris Massacre along with Uğur Kaan Ayık and Oğuz Yüret. Ayhan Oran is bow-legged, because he plays football. Later on, the press got a hold of this, and started asking ‘Where is Ayhan Oran?’ anyways.”

QUESTIONING HOUSES OF THE MIT

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin said the MIT illegally detains people and has special questioning houses in Istanbul, Van and Diyarbakır:

“That place hadn’t been used since 1999. Cleaning, preparation and other efforts were completed, and we had that place opened. There are questioning houses in the headquarters in Van, Istanbul and Diyarbakır too. We don’t have the authority to detain people. There are operatives in the İKK (Counter-Intelligence Unit) who have the authority to detain people, but if anybody else does it, that is illegal. So they do it quietly, without the public hearing about it, and then they release the detainees. They could be offered a position, or the department decides according to the questions and answers. Usually, people are taken in so they would be offered a position. We used to use the Special Activities Directorate offices, this is what I can say now about the campus, the budget, and the buses.”

ISIS MEMBERS IN MIT QUESTIONING HOUSES

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin said ISIS members were interrogated in the special questioning houses and the Turkish state used them as they wished. Pekçetin gave some examples:

“The Special Activities Directorate campus is outside of the Yenimahalle campus, it’s outside the Anadolu Boulevard, it used to be called The Farm. They don’t have the authority to detain people. In the MIT, no department outside of the İKK has that authority. And the İKK Directorate has the authority to take people in on accusations of espionage and prepare summaries. No other directorate has the authority to detain people. At the time, the Special Activities Directorate didn’t either. But they took people in illegally, questioned and released them. Their equipment was better. I saw a young ISIS member there. They said, ‘We took this one in from Syria, he is an ISIS member.’ It was a young man, 25-26 years old. From Iran. They took him to Kars by plane and he was to be taken to Doğubeyazıt to be handed over to Iran. But what Iran gave in return, how he was handed over, if Hakan Fidan did it as a gesture to Iran, I don’t know. I don’t know if the Iranian ISIS member was handed over. Did the Special Activities Directorate take him in under war conditions I don’t know. Because I know that they do take people in under other circumstances. They took in a source in Hatay, and he was released after they figured out he was a source.”

AL NUSRA AND ISIS MEMBERS TRAINED IN CAMPS IN HATAY, ANTEP AND URFA

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin pointed out that the MIT Special Activities Directorate, which provides gangs like Al Nusra and the FSA with members, ammunition and training, has a high budget:

“Their budget is also very high. Because their activities are very special, their budget is high. Buses, trucks, weapons, FSA members going in and out happens through camps. The camps in Hatay, Urfa and Antep have been in the press a lot. There are camps where MPs aren’t allowed in, I believe the activity could be in one of those. Our guys (the MIT) organize the going in and out. It’s the Special Activities that organizes this. No member of the organization ever used those trucks. The white Mercedes buses were never used, even though they were in the headquarters. I know of those. And I know that the Special Activities has a very high budget because of this.”

MIT BUDGET INCREASED FOR SUPPORTING ISIS, AL NUSRA AND THE FSA

MIT administrator Pekçetin said the MIT budget was increased for supporting the ISIS, Al Nusra and FSA gangs and continued: “When Hakan Fidan started, the MIT budget was around 410 million dollars. Right now, I know that the MIT budget is around 1.100.000 dollars. This is a serious increase in just 4-5 years. And I think this is due to the Special Activities department. Of course there is the new campus under construction. A campus outside of Yenimahalle is being built, I don’t know if that is included in the budget.”

MIT ADMINISTRATORS COLLABORATING WITH ISIS: HÜSEYİN ŞİRİN AND KEMAL ESKİNTAN

MIT administrator Erhan Pekçetin provided important information on the Mosul operation by ISIS and Turkey in collusion and continued:

“Other than that, other than the Special Activities’ contact with Al Nusra and the FSA, in the ISIS raid on the Mosul consulate and the Mosul consulate officers being taken hostage… I understood that they played a role in intervening and contacting ISIS for the release of the hostages in the Mosul consulate. Because Kemal Eskintan was given an Outstanding Achievement certificate. I was there. Hüseyin Şirin and Kemal Eskintan received certificates. Hüseyin Şirin was the Iraq Department Chair in the DOB (Dış Operasyonlar Başkanlığı – Foreign Operations Directorate) at the time. As they turned and passed in front of us, Director Levent asked, ‘What tricks did you pull do to receive this?’, and he said, ‘No, this is for the Mosul operation’. That was when I heard of it from him, that Hüseyin Şirin and Kemal Eskintan were on duty in the rescue of the hostages in the Mosul consulate. For that, either directly or indirectly, there was a negotiation with ISIS. Then it was understood that the hostages in the consulate had been rescued. I believe these were their contact with ISIS members.”

THE STATE COVERED UP THE DEATH OF 4 MIT MEMBERS

The MIT administrator also said the MIT met with ISIS for the officers in the Turkish consulate in Mosul and added that in an explosion in a bus sent by the gangs to Efrîn, 4 MIT officers were killed but the state covered up this information:

“On top of these, I would like to add some things to the Mosul Consulate raid by ISIS. The activities of the Special Activities Directorate during the FSA transports weren’t on the press so much, but it was all over the Internet. There was a suicide bombing on one of our Mercedes buses that were taking FSA members to Efrîn. What I heard is a friend from Izmir was martyred in that attack, I used to love that guy. He was a tall, handsome man. One driver and two guards, and 3 or 4 operatives were martyred. Apparently, they saw the bus, the friend had a list, and when the ISIS suicide bomber wanted to get on the bus he told him his name wasn’t on the list. He didn’t let him on the bus, and he told him. So the ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself by the door. He detonated himself before he could board the bus. If he had gotten on the bus, the casualties would have been much higher. There were 3 or 4 martyrs. And some casualties from the FSA members. I even saw a photograph, the trunk doors were blown open on the sides. If he had detonated inside the bus, the glass would have been shattered. You can tell that the bomb exploded outside. From the Special Activities and in general from the organization, there are not many martyrs. But that was one of the rare incidents when there were several martyrs at one time.”