The Saraya al-Salam faction loyal to influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Tuesday it firmly rejected serving under the command of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces, a dispute that could pose an early test for Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s plan to bring arms under state control.
The rejection followed reports that a new security commander had been appointed in Samarra, where Sadr’s armed wing is based. The commander is rumored to be close to the Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction.
Asaib Ahl al-Haq, led by Qais al-Khazali, a leading member of the ruling Coordination Framework, has uneasy ties with the Sadrist movement and its leader, Sadr, for reasons observers describe as “political and ideological.”
A Sadrist official told Asharq Al-Awsat that Samarra was witnessing a “state of severe tension” because of “deliberate friction” by some commanders and parties in the PMF with Saraya fighters.
The official said the dispute erupted after PMF chief Falih al-Fayyadh dismissed Ali al-Aqili, the PMF operations commander in Samarra and a member of the Sadrist movement, and replaced him with another commander close to or affiliated with Asaib Ahl al-Haq.
The move angered Saraya fighters.
The official urged the prime minister, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to “intervene immediately to settle this matter,” saying Saraya was now under his command.
At the start of June, Zaidi issued an administrative order forming a higher committee to oversee Saraya al-Salam’s integration into government security forces and place it directly under the commander-in-chief.
The Joint Operations Command later said it had received the full lists and data for Saraya al-Salam formations, including personnel, weapons and equipment, to complete directives for integrating all Saraya al-Salam formations into security forces tied to the commander-in-chief.
Saraya al-Salam is part of the PMF through brigades 313, 314 and 315. It carries out security duties in several areas, most notably Samarra, where it has been based since June 2007, after the bombing of the Imam al-Askari shrine.
Sadr said on May 27 that he was integrating his armed wing, Saraya al-Salam, into the state and called on PMF factions to hand over their weapons.
Although formally part of the PMF, Saraya al-Salam has long operated semi-independently. It does not take orders from the PMF’s commanders and has poor relations with many factions.
Test for weapons monopoly
The PMF has not commented on the tension. But Saraya al-Salam appealed to Sadr and Zaidi, stressing that it would not remain under PMF command.
In a statement on Tuesday, Saraya al-Salam pointed to its voluntary disarmament and integration into other security institutions, calling the move “a practical model” for placing weapons exclusively in the state’s hands.
It said the PMF’s recent dismissal of some commanders “contradicts the spirit of the integration process and the monopoly of weapons” through changes in commanders, sectors and responsibilities.
The faction said the appointment of the new security commander “conflicts with the provisions and procedures” of the integration committee formed by the government, calling it “an unjustified targeting” of Saraya personnel.
It stressed its categorical rejection of “working under the command of the Popular Mobilization Forces.”
Tribal sheikhs and clerics in Samarra warned on Saturday against replacing Saraya al-Salam with other factions. They called on the prime minister to visit the city personally and assess conditions on the ground.
They demanded that the security file be handed to the Interior Ministry if there was any intention to replace Saraya with other factions.
Observers see the standoff between Saraya al-Salam and the PMF as a challenge to the weapons control plan and to whether it is truly “serious and not merely symbolic.”
It is also a test of the prime minister’s readiness to use his powers to settle a dispute between armed groups that had already announced their integration into state institutions.
