updated Sun. August 28, 2022
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The Guardian
February 15, 2018
On this day,15 years ago, I joined about one million others in central London to march against the impending Iraq war. We were not just part of the biggest political demonstration in British history, but the largest simultaneous protest event in the world, with millions marching in every continent. We gatheredÃâà...
The New Arab
January 11, 2018
It now also appears that IS' brutality is being conveniently and cynically exploited by the Iraqi government and allied pro-Iran Shia militias to shift the blame for atrocities they have committed ... This despite the fact that the families all confirm that their Sunni Arab relatives were taken by Shia death squads.
War on the Rocks
November 1, 2017
While al-Qaeda sought to intimidate or kill anyone who worked with coalition forces and anyone collaborating with the Iraqi government, they murdered relatively few Sunni civilians outside those categories. Shia death squads and the Iraqi government killed far more Sunnis. In that context, many SunnisÃâà...
British GQ
July 10, 2017
Some of their militias really were little more than expanded Shia death squads - thugs in uniform whose idea of a quick thrill was killing a Sunni or, even better, torturing one to death. Yet other Shia commanders led disciplined units of relatively skilled fighters, and understood that if Iraq had any future as aÃâà...
Kurdistan24
June 13, 2017
Pollock also thought it likely that once IS was defeated in Iraq, some elements in the Hashd al-Shaabi, having reached the Syrian border, would cross that frontier and join the struggle there in support of Bashar al-Assad. “That's not news,” Pollock said. “There are already very substantial Iraqi Shia militias led by IranianÃâà...
War Is Boring
April 5, 2017
A force of Shia Arab militiamen from southern Iraq came to the town's rescue, holding off the Sunni militants until American air strikes zeroed in. Soon Kurdish ... One of the most disturbing aspects was the presence of Shia death squads loyal to Al Sadr operating within the security forces. At night, policeÃâà...
Hindustan Times
October 18, 2016
The first time I visited Mosul was in the early summer of 2003, just weeks after the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square came crashing down. In one of the city's nicest neighbourhoods, I asked Ali Jajawi, a retired brigadier-general, whether he felt liberated. He took a great deal of time toÃâà...
War on the Rocks
August 23, 2016
The American military's posture was more aggressive in Sunni-majority areas, and Iraqi security forces collaborated with Shia death squads in pursuit of a vicious counterinsurgency ... The U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the sectarian war it ignited influenced how Syrian Sunnis thought of themselves.
The American Conservative
October 22, 2014
As much out of necessity (given the limp Iraqi Army) as sectarian politics, the Baghdad government has increasingly called upon Shia militias to defend the city. While they currently seem to be holding off ISIS advances beyond the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport, Shia militias have also abductedÃâà...
VICE News
October 21, 2014
Amid genocidal slaughter carried out by the Islamic State and extra-judicial killings perpetrated by Shia death squads, the United Nations says the Iraqi government is also torturing its citizens and unjustly sending hundreds of people to the gallows. According to a report released on Sunday, in more thanÃâà...
Telegraph.co.uk
June 29, 2014
On previous visits, even during the dark days of the civil war, I've always retained some optimism: that the Iraqi security forces would get their act together, ... it was a hotbed of the anti-US insurgency after Saddam's fall, and today is also home to many Sunnis who fled Shia death squads during the civil war.
