The Consolidation of Local Hashd Units: The Case of Brigade 32 (Interview)

By now, it is well-known that Iraq’s Hashd Sha‘abi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) are principally organised into various brigades that have ordinal numbers and are officially affiliated with the Hashd Sha‘abi Commission. In addition to these brigades, various smaller ‘regiments’ (Arabic: afwaj) have arisen during the course of the Hashd’s existence. Many of these regiments reflect more local formations and have often been informally dubbed ‘tribal Hashd.’ However, a more recent trend in Hashd Brigade organisation has been to consolidate provincial regiments into brigades and attach them directly to the Hashd provincial operations commands. For example, Brigades 59 and 74 reflect consolidation of Hashd regiments in Ninawa province (Brigade 74 being particular to the Sinjar area) and their attachment to the Ninawa province operations command of the Hashd that is presently headed by Khudayr al-Matruhi who is tied to Brigade 21 (Badr).