Alwaght-The Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the religious decree (fatwa) issued Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani which mobilized volunteer forces behind army troops on the battlefield against ISIS, “saved” the country.
In June 2014, shortly after ISIS Takfiri terrorist unleashed its terror campaign in Iraq, Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa calling on all Iraqi citizens to defend their country.
“Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose,” said a Sistani representative in his sermon at Friday prayers in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala at the time.
In a statement issued on Friday, Abadi offered his “deep thanks” to Ayatollah Sistani for “his great and continuing support to the heroic fighters.” He also stressed that the Shia cleric’s 2014 call “saved Iraq and paved the way for victory” over ISIS.
Abadi’s remarks came one day after he announced an end to ISIS’s “state of falsehood” following the recapture of Mosul’s landmark Grand al-Nuri Mosque, from where the terror outfit proclaimed its so-called caliphate three years ago.
The fatwa by Ayatollah Sistani helped Shiite fighters, Sunni tribesmen as well as Christian and Yezidi volunteers gather under one umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), commonly known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, to combat ISIS terrorist group.
Immediately after the emergence of ISIS, Iraqi government forces, who overwhelmed by the terror group’s lightening advances, suffered heavy blows on the battle ground.
However, PMU fighters helped the army regain strength and achieve an upper hand in the fight against ISIS terrorists.
The Iraqi parliament last year recognized PMU as an official force with similar rights as those of the regular army.
