DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2019) Former prime minister of Iraq, Haider Abadi, has said in an interview with Sputnik that he favors including Shiite militias into the country's defense force.
"Militia is a national force that has efficiently participated in defeating terrorism and protection of the motherland. I do not support militia dissolution, but I am in favor of its structuring. I have been working on militia structuring in order to turn it into a dynamic force within the country's defense units, which have no relation to politics and are far from any party affiliation," Abadi said.
Abadi resigned as the Iraqi prime minister after four years in office in October 2018, when the operation against the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia), which had seized vast territories in Iraq, especially at its border with Syria, was almost over, with only IS sleeper cells remaining in the country. Militias, mostly uniting members of Shiite groups, actively engaged in the counter-IS operation.
