Shafaq News- Samarra

Iraq took the first concrete steps Thursday toward integrating the Patriotic Shiite Movement’s armed faction, Saraya al-Salam, into the formal security establishment, as a government-appointed committee arrived in Samarra to receive the group's headquarters, weapons, and banner, according to the Security Media Cell chief Major General Saad Maan.

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In a statement, Maan said that during the handover ceremony that took place at Saraya al-Salam's headquarters in the Samarra sector, the flag of the faction was formally surrendered “as a symbolic opening of the first phase of legal enforcement.”

The committee overseeing the process is chaired by the Deputy Commander of the Joint Operations Command and includes the military secretary of the Commander-in-Chief, along with representatives from the Ministries of Defense and Interior and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella of predominantly Shiite armed factions operating under nominal Iraqi state authority.

Maan said the committee was formed to establish the technical mechanisms, procedures, and structural arrangements governing weapons transfers and organizational restructuring ahead of full integration. Each phase of the process, he noted, carries its own implementation requirements.

“All security and military formations must operate exclusively under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, [PM Ali al-Zaidi].”

Saraya al-Salam, formed by Muqtada al-Sadr in 2014 in response to ISIS advances, has operated as an independent armed force outside the unified command structure that governs Iraq's formal military.

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