Iraq’s Militias: Double The Size, Double The Money, Double The Threat – OpEd

By Baria Alamuddin*

Mushrooming funding for the Tehran-backed Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary movement in Iraq has almost doubled their size to 238,000 personnel and nearly $3 billion of the budget, according to the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee.

When the Hashd movement’s institutional structure was established...