Sadrist militias kill eight Islamic State militants in central Iraq
A Shiite fighter from Saraya al-Salam
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – Eight Islamic State terrorists were killed Monday in violent confrontations with militias affiliated to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in central Iraq, a security source said.
“A force of the 313th brigade of Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) clashed with a number of Islamic State militants in Samaraa city, north of the capital Baghdad, leaving eight terrorists killed,” the source told Iraqi news website Alghad Press.
“The clashes also left two members of Saraya al-Salam dead and two others wounded,” the source added.
In December 2017, Sadr ordered his fighters to hand state-issued weapons back to the government following the country’s defeat of the Islamic State group.
Sadr’s Saraya al-Salam fighters took up arms against the extremist group in 2014 after the fall of Mosul and are officially part of the government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi.
Sadr called on his fighters to also hand over parts of the territory they control to Iraq’s security forces, however, he stressed that his fighters would remain present as protectors of a holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.