During the Arbaeen celebrations between the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, I came across a commander with a wound on his arm. Sabih al Hajj Abu Yahia from Basra is a founder of the Zeinab Akile Brigades, a part of the Popular Mobilization Units. Telling me why he joined the war, he said, “We couldn’t allow Sistani’s wishes to go unheeded.”
After issuing a fatwa, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani mobilized the militias after the fall of Mosul in June 2014 and stopped the advance of the Islamic State (IS) to Baghdad.