BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has denied the media reports that the United States has asked Iraq to dissolve the mainly Shia popular resistance movement known as Hashd al-Shaabi.
The reports alleged that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded the Iraqi government freeze and confiscate the weapons of up to 67 groups of fighters in Iraq and dissolve them within a period of time, including Badr, Asa'b Ahl al-Haq and Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Companies, headed by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"The talk about a period of time to dissolve the Hashd Shaabi is incorrect," Mahdi told a press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting.
He confirmed that the issue of the Hashd Shaabi paramilitary brigades "is purely Iraqi."
Moreover, Mahdi denied local news report claiming that there is an increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, adding that the "talk about the increase of foreign troops in Iraq is not true."
On Jan. 9, Pompeo paid a surprise visit to Iraq and held a series of meetings with Iraqi top officials before meeting with the Kurdish leaders in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Pompeo's visit to Baghdad is part of his Middle East tour, in which he tried to reassure U.S. allies about the U.S. commitment to the region following Washington's decision to pull out troops from Syria.
Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters played a major role in the liberation of Daesh-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.
The Iraqi parliament on November 26, 2016 approved a law giving full legal status to Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.
In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.