US Demand That Iraq Disarm Brigades Misreads The Security Reality

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Since 2014, many have operated under the umbrella of the PMF. Formed largely in response to the threat from the Islamic State group, the PMF consists of around 60-70 brigades, mainly Shiite Muslim groups but with some representing the country's significant Sunni Muslim minority as well as other ethnic groups.

The PMF is formally and legally affiliated with the state and is seen as an Iraq-centered entity – that is to say, it is answerable to the Iraqi prime minister and tasked with providing national defense and regional security as a legal part of the nation's security apparatus. But in reality, some elements of the PMF operate with a degree of independence.

The PMF exists alongside so-called resistance groups – armed groups that are ideologically allied with Iran and often support the aims of Tehran beyond the goals of the Iraqi nation.

These include, among others, the Hezbollah Brigades and al-Nujaba Movement – both of which trace their lineage to the Mahdi Army formed, with Iran's assistance, during the US invasion in 2003.

The aims of the PMF and those of the resistance groups are not always synonymous. Some resistance groups operate outside of the PMF, while others, such as Asab Ahl al Haq Brigades, have units both in the PMF and the outside resistance.

It's a complex picture, and the line demarcating the resistance and the PMF is often blurred.

Demands from Washington

The US has long protested the presence of all resistance groups in Iraq. In October 2025, then-US Special Envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya warned that“there is no place for armed groups operating outside the authority of the Iraqi state.”

Part of Washington's concern is the role that some resistance groups have played in attacks on US assets in Iraq and the region.

Since hostilities broke out between the US and Iran in February 2026, Iraqi-based resistance factions have launched hundreds of rocket strikes against American forces in Iraq. They have also attacked infrastructure in Arab Gulf states and targets within Israel.

Such attacks prompted the US in April to criticize Baghdad for failing to“prevent terrorist attacks in or from Iraqi territory” by“Iran-aligned terrorist militia groups [who] claim to be associated with the Iraqi government.”

Iraq under al-Zaidi, too, wants an end to groups on its soil joining Iran in retaliation strikes against the United States and its allies. But the US and Iraqi governments seemingly differ on how.

Washington appears to want the dismantling or meaningful restructuring of armed groups writ large. But al-Zaidi's plan simply seeks to bring the resistance factions into the state-sanctioned PMF.

And on this front, some progress has been made. On October 6, al-Zaidi marked the halfway milestone of this“state monopoly of arms” by announcing that he had convinced three out of the five main resistance factions sitting outside the PMF to surrender their weapons to the state, with negotiations ongoing with the other two.

By the“state,” al-Zaidi almost certainly means the PMF Commission – the official state body that administers, funds and oversees the PMF.

The messy business of state formation

In Washington, that may not be sufficient. More than a century ago, sociologist Max Weber famously defined the state primarily as a means to centralize rulemaking and monopolize the use of legitimate violence – and this view prevails in Western nations.