Iran-backed militias in Iraq mulls disbanding amid tensions with US: Report

Several powerful Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the US Trump administration, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials tell Reuters.

US officials told Baghdad that unless it acted to disband the militias operating on its soil, America could target the groups with airstrikes, the people add.

Izzat al-Shahbndar, a senior Shi’ite Muslim politician close to Iraq’s governing alliance, tells Reuters that discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and several militia leaders are “very advanced,” and the groups are inclined to comply with US calls for disarmament.

The apparent shift comes after the US launched significant military strikes against Iran’s Houthi rebel group in Yemen, which has attacked Red Sea shipping lanes and fired ballistic missiles at Israel.

“The factions are not acting stubbornly or insisting on continuing in their current form,” Shahbndar says, adding that the groups are “fully aware” they could be targeted by the US.

The six militia commanders interviewed in Baghdad and a southern province, who request anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, are from the Kataib Hezbollah, Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada and Ansarullah al-Awfiyaa groups.

Some of the groups launched attacks against Israel following the October 7, 2023, attack, though they have seemingly pulled back from such action since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon reached in November.

The commanders say their main ally and patron, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) military force, gave them its blessing to take whatever decisions they deemed necessary to avoid being drawn into a potentially ruinous conflict with the United States and Israel.

The militias are part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of about 10 hardline Shi’ite armed factions that collectively command about 50,000 fighters and arsenals that include long-range missiles and anti-aircraft weapons, according to two security officials who monitor militias’ activities.