Jacob Siegel . The Daily Beast. July 2014. A commander of Moqtada al Sadr’s newly renamed ‘Peace Brigades’ describes plans to reunify Iraq—with a little help from Iran. Will they fight ISIS as hard as they fought the U.S. Army?
Martin Chulov. The Guardian. June 2014. The Mahdi army, now renamed the Peace Brigades, parades its power in the Iraqi capital as it prepares to do battle with Sunni rebels in the north
DW. A notorious Shiite militia is preparing to march on its rapidly-advancing ISIS enemy. In the past, the Mahdi Army was known for death squads, arbitrary shootings, kidnappings and bombings.
Loveday Morris. The Washington Post. June 21, 2014. After militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took Mosul and other Iraqi cities, the government issued a call for volunteers to join the army. Many Iraqis answered.
David E. Johnson, M. Wade Markel, Brian Shannon.RAND.
Basic Information
"The Mahdi Army was formed by Moqtada al-Sadr and Imad Mugniyah in April 2003. Initially, around three hundred recruits from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were sent to Lebanon where they were trained by Hezbollah." Mapping Militant Organizations-Stanford
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