Plans would break up PMF units built around factions, sources say

BAGHDAD — A government committee is weighing proposals that would break up Popular Mobilization Forces units formed around individual factions, redistributing fighters between brigades, putting army officers into the command structure and retiring the generation of commanders who took charge in 2014, sources told 964media.

One proposal would move field fighters between brigades rather than keeping them in the units they joined during the war against the Islamic State group, a security source said, to produce “more integrated formations with less reliance on previous political or religious leadership structures.” Fighters’ records would go into an digital system assigning them to brigades by provincial need, force requirements and operational duty, with the aim of reducing the concentration of personnel under a single commander or from one area. Administrative staff would stay in place.

Other proposals would expand the presence of army officers in the PMF command structure and increase the number of military specialists in senior posts, which the sources said could gradually change command procedures and deployment. A further set would create a new structure of ranks and command positions, review personnel ages, retire those beyond age or service limits under existing procedures and open posts to younger officers and recruits.

Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Organization, met several PMF brigade commanders to discuss the changes and the next phase for the force, the sources said. More than 20 PMF brigades are affiliated with Badr, the largest political and military bloc inside the organization and a member of the Coordination Framework.

The force would also get redesigned uniforms, insignia and ranks, presenting it as a formal security institution under a unified military command.

The PMF was formed in 2014 after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for volunteers to fight the Islamic State group after it seized Mosul, and parliament recognized it in 2016 as part of Iraq’s security apparatus under the commander-in-chief. It grew into an umbrella of dozens of brigades, some closely tied to Iran and the Revolutionary Guard, and its place in the state has been contested ever since.

An attempt to settle that place in law collapsed a year ago. A bill defining the force’s command structure, powers, formations, finances and personnel rights reached a second reading in July 2025, but many Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers walked out, objecting that it was proceeding without political agreement. The government withdrew it in August 2025 after objections that it would establish the PMF as a permanent military institution with broad operational and financial powers. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had warned then-Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that the legislation would institutionalize the influence of Iran-aligned armed groups.

The bill was still among more than 100 pieces of legislation awaiting action in June, and the Sadiqoun bloc demanded its return to parliament last month.

The force has also been under fire. Since the regional war began in late February, PMF positions have been struck across several governorates, killing about 100 fighters in attacks the force attributed to the United States and Israel. U.S. and Saudi aircraft struck PMF sites in Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala in late July, killing at least 20 members and wounding 32, according to the force.

Factions under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella have claimed repeated drone, rocket and missile attacks on the Kurdistan Region and U.S.-linked targets in Iraq over the same period, without government authorization.

The government set up the restructuring committee in June to bring weapons under state control and end political affiliations within the security forces, with representatives from the armed forces, the PMF and the defense and interior ministries. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Saraya al-Salam and the Imam Ali Battalions have moved to comply; Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada have refused while U.S. forces remain in Iraq.

U.S. and Saudi aircraft struck PMF sites in Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala in late July, killing at least 20 members and wounding 32, according to the force.