NewsDialy
The push to bring Iran-backed militias under Iraqi state control has hit a public stumbling block.
The militias in question are the Popular Mobilization Units, or PMU: state-affiliated armed factions that operate inside Iraq with documented ties to Iran.
A senior Iraqi official said in late August that September 30 is not a deadline for those groups to hand over weapons, directly contradicting signals Baghdad had sent only days before.
Qasim al-Araji, security advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, told state broadcaster Al Iraqiya on August 23 that September 30 marks the departure of the U.S.-led international coalition that dismantled the Islamic State, not a weapons handover date.
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