ISIS Attacks PMF Post as Iraq's Disarmament Debate Intensifies

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - ISIS militants attacked a Popular Mobilization Forces position near Khurmatu early Sunday, prompting an Iraqi Army-PMF security operation hours later as Baghdad simultaneously confronts a politically charged campaign to bring weapons held by armed factions under state control.

The 63rd PMF Brigade said militants struck one of its positions on the outskirts of Hanjira Mountain in the Khurmatu area before withdrawing after an exchange of fire.

"A number of ISIS terrorists attacked one of our military posts on the outskirts of Hanjira Mountain in the Khurmatu area," the brigade said in a statement. "Our forces immediately engaged them, and following a clash, the terrorists were forced to flee."

No casualty figures were provided in the supplied reporting.

Residents in the area reported hearing a powerful explosion followed by heavy gunfire, while PMF units were placed on heightened alert and began searching nearby terrain.

By late morning, Iraqi Army and PMF forces had launched a broader operation around the Mursi Ali mountains and surrounding rugged areas to pursue the militants, identify possible hideouts and prevent further ISIS activity.

The attack underscores a continuing security challenge for Iraq: ISIS cells remain capable of exploiting mountainous and difficult terrain even as the government focuses increasing political energy on a different question, the future of heavily armed factions whose weapons and chains of command have become a source of domestic and international controversy.

Attack revives enduring ISIS threat

The security operation around Khurmatu illustrates why armed formations created or expanded during the war against ISIS continue to cite counterterrorism as part of their justification for maintaining military capabilities.

The Popular Mobilization Forces were formally incorporated into Iraq's state security structure, but the broader PMF system contains factions with distinct political affiliations, command relationships and, in some cases, close ties to Iran.

That complexity has become central to Baghdad's current effort to establish exclusive state authority over weapons.

The government is approaching a Sept. 30 deadline for bringing armed groups under tighter state control, a process that has exposed divisions among factions and within the Shiite Coordination Framework.

Some armed groups have expressed readiness to surrender weapons. Shibl al-Zaydi, commander of Kataib Imam Ali and head of the Khadamat Alliance, recently joined the Coordination Framework's leadership meetings after publicly stating his willingness to hand his group's weapons to the government.

Others remain resistant.

Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada leader Abu Ala al-Walai was excluded from previous Coordination Framework meetings after refusing to commit to weapons handover, according to Kurdistan24 reporting. The Nujaba Movement has also publicly rejected surrendering its arms.

The Badr Organization has warned that attempting to disarm factions by force could provoke internal conflict, while some groups have tied any weapons handover to conditions including the withdrawal of US forces and improvements in Iraq's national defense capabilities.

Counterterrorism and state authority collide

Sunday's ISIS attack highlights the difficult environment in which Baghdad is trying to carry out that policy.

The government's objective is not simply to reduce the number of armed personnel operating in Iraq. It is attempting to determine which institutions control weapons, who possesses authority to deploy them and whether politically affiliated factions can retain independent military power alongside formal state structures.

That distinction is particularly important in the case of the PMF.

Many PMF units have an official legal status within Iraq's security system, while other armed networks have operated with varying degrees of autonomy or used the PMF name without formal authorization.

The Interior Ministry recently said authorities had shut 71 unauthorized "ghost" or "shadow" bases and registered more than 500,000 weapons as part of a national firearms database. The PMF Commission subsequently denied that the closed facilities belonged to it and warned against unauthorized use of the organization's name.

The debate therefore cannot be reduced to whether Iraq still faces security threats. The Khurmatu attack demonstrates that it does.

The more difficult question is whether confronting threats such as ISIS requires politically affiliated armed groups to retain independent weapons and influence, or whether those capabilities can be placed fully under accountable state command.

Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi's government has taken the latter position, ordering legislation intended to establish state control over weapons and warning that armed organizations refusing to comply could face legal consequences.

The campaign has already created tension.

The recent detention of PMF intelligence official Abbas Yaqoubi reportedly prompted intervention from powerful armed-group leaders, who warned of escalation before a Baghdad court acquitted and released him. According to a PMF source cited by Kurdistan24, the dispute came close to provoking an armed confrontation around Baghdad's Green Zone.

Such episodes demonstrate why the disarmament issue has become broader than weapons collection. Armed groups possess political representation, institutional relationships and military capabilities that make enforcement potentially dangerous.

At the same time, regional pressures have increased scrutiny of Iraqi factions following attacks against US and regional interests. Baghdad has repeatedly insisted that Iraqi territory must not become a platform for attacks against neighboring countries.

The approaching withdrawal of remaining US forces also complicates the argument.

Some factions have long justified retaining weapons as necessary resistance to foreign military presence. If that presence ends as scheduled, Baghdad will face stronger pressure to demonstrate that all decisions involving armed force belong to official institutions.

Sunday's operation in Khurmatu shows that Iraq will continue to need capable forces against ISIS.

It does not, however, resolve the parallel question confronting Baghdad: whether counterterrorism can be conducted through a unified national security system rather than a landscape in which state formations, politically affiliated factions and autonomous armed networks overlap.

As Iraqi Army and PMF units search the mountains for the militants behind Sunday's attack, the government is therefore managing two security problems at once, a persistent ISIS insurgency and an unresolved struggle over who ultimately controls Iraq's guns.