In the 2010s a coalition of militias called the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF; also called al-Hashd al-Shaabi) aided the state in fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The militias were afterward given a degree of formal legality as auxiliaries to the armed forces, but they continued to operate independently of the state and some of them confronted U.S. forces, which are strategic security partners of the Iraqi government.
Facing pressure from the United States during the 2026 Iran war, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi sought to bring the PMF under direct state control. Shortly after taking office, he embarked on a disarmament program, gaining support from Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sarāyā al-Salām, ʿAṣāʾib Ahl al-Ḥaqq, and Kataeb Imam Ali, but facing resistance from other factions such as Kataeb Hezbollah. He also had support from Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiʿi Muslim cleric.