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How will Abadi handle Iraq’s Shiite militias?

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi faces a great challenge in dealing with the predominately Shiite Popular Mobilization Units fighting in Iraq, as some of its factions are refusing to be integrated into the army and other security forces.
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 20:  U.S. President Donald J. Trump greets Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House on March 20, 2017 in Washington DC. The meeting marks Haider al-Abadi's first visit to the US capital sinceTrump's inauguration. (Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)

Some factions of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) are less than satisfied with the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to Washington on March 19-23, given his controversial statements about his stance toward them.

Abadi said March 22, during his speech to the 68-member global coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS), “There is an Iraqi force today fighting IS comprising the Iraqi army, the counterterrorism apparatus and the peshmerga [forces].” He did not include the PMU, but later, in a different context, he mentioned them as “volunteers who took part in the fighting against IS side by side with our security forces … under the command of our security forces.”

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