The Shiite militias that fought in the war against the Islamic State are now "committed to mafia-like activities" in the former strongholds of the Islamic State. Iraqi Sunnis fear another Islamic uprising, according to an article published in the Washington Post. In 2014, the rapid rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - ISIS, later renamed the Islamic State - was largely aided by the belief of Sunni Arabs that they were second-class citizens in a Shia-dominated Iraq. Popular support for the Islamic State among the Iraqi Sunni Arab minority took the Iraqi government by surprise and nearly allowed the militant group to take Baghdad in 2015. Today, after the destruction of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, security and intelligence dominated by Iraq's Shiites have returned to the Sunni-majority regions that were once ruled by ISIS.
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But there are signs that some 50 Shiite militias, which have been supported by the Iraqi state during the war against ISIS, are becoming highly autonomous armed gangs that are undermining the central government of Baghdad.
These militias - many of which are politically aligned with Iran - they are essentially armed fringes of Shiite political parties that control more than a quarter of the seats in the Iraqi parliament. In 2014, the Shia-dominated Iraqi government attempted to use the power of the militias by uniting them under the umbrella of the People's Mobilization Forces (PMF). PMF troops have participated in all major fronts of the war against ISIS and are today an officially recognized military force with wages equivalent to that of the Iraqi army and police. Technically, the PMF operates under the command of the Iraqi prime minister. In reality, however, the militias that make up the PMF are led by their respective Shiite commanders, many of which are ideologically allied with Tehran.
The PMF militias now have control of much of Sunni-dominated western Iraq. According to Washington Post correspondents Tamer el-Ghobashy and Mustafa Salim, militias are now using their new territorial power to earn large sums of money. Several PMF militias operate countless checkpoints across Western Iraq, on city streets or, increasingly, in cities like Mosul, imposing tolls for refueling trucks and even for individual drivers. The two Washington Post correspondents sound the alarm saying that these militia members are starting to use "mafia" means, favoring the protection racket and kidnapping of motorists overnight to release them after payment by their families.
In addition, PMF commanders make arbitrary decisions on nearly 2 million Iraqi Sunnis, displaced from their homes in refugee camps due to the war. Many of these homes and land that used to belong to Iraqi Sunnis are now expropriated by PMF commanders, who claim that their previous owners, without having any evidence, collaborated with ISIS. This practice, el-Ghobashy and Salim say, is rapidly altering the demographic balance between Sunnis and Shiites throughout western Iraq. The two Washington Post correspondents warn that these mafia-like practices of the PMF are "increasing local resentments, giving life to the Sunni grievances that supported the dramatic rise of the Islamic State three years ago."