When I was touring the museum at the Imam Ali Shrine in Karbala in Iraq recently, a coffin was brought into the shrine's mausoleum. The coffin contained the body of a young Turkmen killed in a clash with the Islamic State (IS). Nowadays the coffins of many killed in battle are brought to mausoleums in Karbala and Najaf. Fighting is in the north; mourning is in the south. Shiite Turkmens of Mosul and Tal Afar have been uprooted with the arrival of IS.
They are fighting on the front lines of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units. Local sources told me about 12,000 Turkmens have joined those forces. For example, of 5,000 fighters of the Ali Akbar Brigade, 500 are Turkmens from Tal Afar. Of the five wounded men I visited in early December in a Karbala hospital, two were Turkmens. Turkmens are also heavily represented in the Iraqi special forces of Surau al-Ittihadiya. During the past 18 months, Turkmens of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato have been taking up arms.