Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Iraqi authorities on Friday signed up the first batch of 1,000 recruits for a new Sunni militia to help its security forces take back the western Anbar province from the so-called Islamic State terror group.
The newly appointed governor of Anbar province, Souhaib al-Ani, told the recruits that it was the start of the liberation of the province, an estimated 65 percent of which has been under control of the Islamic State terrorists for the last year and a half.
"Today is not like any other day, today is the beginning of the end for those who have wreaked havoc on our homes," al-Ani told the recruits arrayed before him under the hot sun before an audience of military and tribal leaders.
"This is not like any other day because all of Iraq stands with you," he added, speaking at the ceremony in the town of Amiriyat Fallujah, a few kilometers (miles) south of the main IS-stronghold in Anbar, the city of Falluja.
Anbar's Sunni tribes were key to defeating al-Qaida in 2006 but afterwards. Many were later targeted and killed when the Islamic State terrorists swept into the province.
Iraq's new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has been more open to arming the Sunnis and authorized the creation of a 6,000-strong Popular Mobilization Unit in Anbar.
Friday's recruits are from the Albu Eissa tribe based in the town of Amiriyat al-Fallujah, which for the past year has been battling the so-called Islamic State militants based in their stronghold of Fallujah, just 30 kilometers to the north.
Sheikh Rajeh Barakat, a tribal leader and member of the Anbar provincial council said most of Sunnis now eager to fight the well-armed extremists. They realized the government really wanted to do something about the so-called Islamic State, so they started volunteering. He predicted that many more Sunnis would join this militia to help drive the IS out.
All new recruits will be vetted by a committee including a top military general, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units and the Anbar governor himself.
The main fight against the Islamic State terrorists will likely still be carried out by elite army units, but the militias will be playing an important role in holding territory taken back from the Islamic State fake jhadists.
One of the main goals of any fight will be Fallujah, a stronghold of al-Qaida 10 years ago and one of the first cities taken by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in January 2014.
"The Islamic State cannot be defeated in Anbar unless it is defeated in Fallujah, the city is a symbol for the Islamic State," said Eissa Sayer al-Issawi, Fallujah mayor who was forced to flee the IS onslaught, speaking as he watched the ceremony.
/129
