Iraqi Religious Leader Urges Paramilitaries To Hand Back Weapons

An important Iraqi Shiite cleric has urged fighters to hand government weapons back to the state, following the nation’s declaration of victory against IS.

Muqtada al-Sadar also called on forces to hand over territory to other branches of Iraqi security forces in a speech broadcast on Iraqi television.

However, he stated that his men would continue to guard a holy shrine in Samarra, a city north of Baghdad.

Mr Al-Sadr commands one of several Shiite militias that mobilised after IS militants swept across northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014.

They make up a force of state-sanctioned paramilitaries, officially under the command of the prime minister but with their own chain of command.

Al-Sadr’s announcement follows that of Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi, who declared victory over IS in a national address on Saturday.

Iraqi forces have now reportedly driven militias from their final strongholds in the Western desert.

Al-Sadr, from a revered Shiite clerical family, commanded a powerful militia that battled US troops in the years after the 2003 invasion.

His fighters are today known as the Peace Brigades.

During his address on Monday, Mr al-Sadr warned members of the paramilitary forces against participating in elections scheduled for May.

Tens of thousands of Popular Mobilisation Forces are deployed across the country.

However, many are viewed with suspicion by some of Iraq's minority Sunnis and Kurds.

The paramilitaries clashed with Kurdish fighters in October when federal forces retook disputed territories in northern Iraq that the Kurds had captured from IS.