MILES O'BRIEN: The long fight against ISIS
in Iraq is now all but over.
Claiming victory?
An American-led coalition of Iraqi government
forces and Kurdish troops, joined by tens
of thousands of militia fighters backed by
Iran.
And it is the Iranian support for that force
that is causing great concern in Washington.
We return to our series Iran Rising in Iraq.
And again, in a partnership with the Pulitzer
Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent
Reza Sayah reports.
REZA SAYAH: At a training camp just outside
of the city of Kirkuk, a rare glimpse of America's
newest problem in Iraq, the Popular Mobilization
Forces, PMF, for short, Hashd al-Shaabi in
Arabic, an armed militia more than 100,000
fighters strong who helped crush ISIS in Iraq,
many armed, funded, and trained by America's
longtime foe the Islamic Republic of Iran,
with no plans to disband.
ABU ALI BEYK, Commander, Popular Mobilization
Forces (through translator): The PMF has reached
a place where no one can stop it, and this
is a blow to U.S. interests in the Middle
East.
REZA SAYAH: Abu Ali Beyk is the face of America's
newest problem, a battle-scarred PMF commander
committed to God and driven by duty, and in
no small measure revenge.
When Beyk was a child, Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, executed his Shia
father.
Beyk and his family fled to neighboring Iran,
the leading Shia power in the region, where
they lived for more than a decade.
Twenty years later, he was back in Iraq fighting
ISIS, a terrorist organization many here believe
was made up of Sunni remnants of Saddam Hussein's
forces, and supported, Beyk says, by Washington's
Sunni Arab allies.
ABU ALI BEYK (through translator): Everyone
knows ISIS was manufactured by America's allies
in the region.
The PMF, backed by Iran, defeated ISIS, so
those American allies are not happy.
REZA SAYAH: It was the threat of ISIS in Iraq
that spawned the PMF in 2014.
With most U.S. ground forces gone and Iraqi
forces too weak to take on ISIS, the Iraqi
government called on Iran for help, and Iraq's
highest religious authority, Shia cleric Ayatollah
Ali Sistani, called for volunteer fighters.
Within weeks, armed militias mobilized, backed
by Iran.
ABU ALI BEYK (through translator): While the
whole world watched as Iraq was collapsing,
in fact, it was only Iran that stood with
us by providing us moral and material support.
REZA SAYAH: The PMF acknowledged support from
Iran.
Many fighters say they have traveled there.
We heard several speak the Iranian language
of Farsi.
HAJI JAWDAT ASSAF, Spokesman, Popular Mobilization
Forces: We love Iranians.
REZA SAYAH: But PMF spokesman Haji Jawdat
Assaf insists they're not beholden to Iran,
and never use Iranian soldiers.
HAJI JAWDAT ASSAF: I think most people in
Europe or in America must not believe these
lies.
There's no Iranians in Hashd al-Shaabi.
There's advisers, Iranian advisers.
REZA SAYAH: No Iranian adviser is more revered
among the PMF than Major General Qasem Soleimani,
a senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary
Guard and chief strategist of operations outside
Iran's borders.
Washington calls him a terrorist whose Shia
militias killed American soldiers in Iraq
during the U.S. occupation.
The PMF says he's a hero, a brilliant tactician
who helped save Iraq.
What is it about Major Qasem Soleimani that
inspires you and so many other people?
HAJI JAWDAT ASSAF: When we see him -- because
he is brave.
We go to the fight, one of us fights like
1,000 soldiers.
REZA SAYAH: It was Soleimani who led many
of the PMF brigades in a three-year ground
campaign that overpowered ISIS and eventually
set the stage for Iraqi forces to defeat the
extremist group in Mosul, its last major stronghold
in Iraq.
This is the town of Qayyarah just south of
Mosul, the former ISIS stronghold in Northern
Iraq.
Before U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launched an
operation to take back Mosul from ISIS, it
was the PMF that cleared out ISIS from Qayyarah
and many other towns and villages on the outskirts
of Mosul.
U.S. artillery units positioned on the outskirts
of the city pounded ISIS-held areas in Mosul,
while U.S. fighter jets provided air support.
But PMF Leaders say their estimated 20,000
casualties, whose pictures line many Iraqi
streets, show who did the real fighting.
ABU ALI BEYK (through translator): The places
we liberated were liberated by Iraqi forces.
The Americans didn't back up the PMF anywhere.
They supported some Iraqi special forces by
air, but most of the areas were liberated
by the PMF.
REZA SAYAH: The Iraqi government credits all
members of the coalition with defeating ISIS.
But, today, it's the Iranian-backed militias
that patrol many key towns in Northern Iraq,
seemingly securing what Iran's critics fear
most: the so-called Shia Crescent, an Iranian
sphere of influence stretching to the Mediterranean.
MAZIN AL-ESHAIKER, Iraqi Politician: I personally
don't think the country needs more than one
army.
REZA SAYAH: Mazin Al-Eshaiker is an anti-Iranian
Iraqi politician and staunch supporter of
President Donald Trump.
Al-Eshaiker says the PMF should disband.
Otherwise, Iran has a powerful security presence
that keeps Iraq weak and under Iran's control,
an accusation Tehran denies.
MAZIN AL-ESHAIKER: I think they would like
to have a mirror image of the Revolutionary
Guards in Iran, or a mirror image of the Hezbollah
in Lebanon.
Both of them are very popular in their respective
countries.
REZA SAYAH: Are they getting there?
Are they achieving it?
MAZIN AL-ESHAIKER: I think we are already
there.
REZA SAYAH: One of Iraq's top military officials
disagrees.
Major General Ghais Al-Hamdawi says what Iran
wants is a secure border and a stable neighbor
free of extremism, not a building block in
a Shia crescent.
MAJ.
GEN.
GHAIS AL-HAMDAWI, Iraqi Army (through translator):
But this doesn't mean they interfere in politics
and sovereignty.
It doesn't mean they interfere in domestic
affairs.
We are very careful to make our relationship
with Iran in accordance to the law, and with
respect to the state, just like we do with
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and the West
as well.
REZA SAYAH: Al-Hamdawi says the many powerful
factions of the PMF who oppose the Iranian
government, led by powerful clerics like Ayatollah
Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr, serve as a barrier
to any attempt by Iran to dominate Iraq.
Al-Hamdawi is convinced ISIS would still be
here if it wasn't for the PMF and Iran's support.
MAJ.
GEN.
GHAIS AL-HAMDAWI (through translator): Iran
stood by the people of Iraq during complicated
circumstances.
I believe, without the help of Iran, ISIS
would be standing on the doorsteps of Baghdad.
Iraq went through very difficult times.
In fact, the PMF was one of the most important
factors in the protection of Iraq.
REZA SAYAH: The U.S. government says otherwise.
Last month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
explicitly called the PMF an Iranian militia
and demanded they leave.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said no, calling
PMF fighters Iraqi nationals and the hope
of the region.
But the U.S. is pushing back, intensifying
Tehran and Washington's longstanding proxy
conflict in Iraq.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Reza Sayah in
Kirkuk.
MILES O'BRIEN: In Reza Sayah's final report
tomorrow, he will look at the tacit partnership
between the U.S. and Iran to defeat ISIS in
Iraq, and where that common goal ends.
