Haider al-Abadi rejects call to dissolve Hashid al-Shaabi

Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi on Saturday rejected a call by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to dissolve the Hashd al-Shaabi militia.

Speaking to supporters on Friday, al-Sadr called for dissolving the militia and merging its fighters in the Iraqi army.

“The Hashd al-Shaabi…is for Iraq and will not be dissolved,” al-Abadi said in a conference in the capital Baghdad.

“The next phase after liberating the land from Daesh is the battle of the unity of word,” he said.

The Hashd al-Shaabi militia was established in 2014 with the avowed purpose of fighting the Islamic State group (IS), which captured vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq.