“We see them, we attack them, we get the weapons from them, we talk to them, we get their confessions, and then we kill them,” says Mr. Zamili, 35 years old, who ran five restaurants before forming Al Qara’a in June. “Of course, this is much better than the army strategy.”
Shiite militias like Al Qara’a have emerged as the most effective fighting force against Islamic State in Iraq, helping the battered army break a two-month siege and humanitarian crisis in Amerli in August and recapture the strategically important oil-refinery town of Beiji in mid-November…
Shiite militia leaders say their recent successes reflect their holy warrior zeal, superior training compared with Iraqi government troops, less corruption in the ranks and freedom from the legal, bureaucratic and human-rights restrictions on regular Iraqi forces. But some Sunni politicians, tribal leaders and human-rights advocates are worried that the take-no-prisoners tactics of many militia groups are turning them into a mirror image of the Sunni jihadists fighting on behalf of Islamic State.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member