raqi Shiite cleric urges militias to disarm after IS defeat

11/12/2017 19:29

        An influential Iraqi Shiite cleric on Monday urged his fighters to hand state-issued weapons back to the government, following Iraq's declaration of victory against the Islamic State group.
        
        In a speech broadcast on Iraqi television, Muqtada al-Sadr also called on his forces to hand over some territory to other branches of Iraq's security forces, but said his men would continue to guard a holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
        
        Al-Sadr commands one of several mostly Shiite militias that mobilized after IS militants swept across northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014. The paramilitaries are state-sanctioned and officially under the command of the prime minister, but have their own chains of command.
        
        Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over IS in a national address on Saturday, after Iraqi forces drove the militants from their last strongholds in the western desert.