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11 Dec, 2017 09:56

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urges militias to disarm after ISIS defeat

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged his fighters to hand state-issued weapons back to the government on Monday, following Baghdad’s declaration of victory against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). Al-Sadr also called on his forces to hand over some territory to other branches of Iraq’s security forces. He said, however, that his men would continue to guard a holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, AP reports. The cleric 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 officially under the command of the prime minister, but each has their own chain of command.