KESSARRAT, Iraq (AP) – Ali Ahsan paced back and forth carrying a rifle more than half his height in the searing heat as his militia convoy made a pit stop in the Anbar desert to rest and pray.
Unlike the rugged men in fatigues around him, his prepubescent face has barely sprung a whisker. Now that school is out, the petite 14-year-old is spending his summer break fighting the Islamic State group with his father and other members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes the Shiite militias.
“I’m here because it’s my duty,” the stone-faced boy in blue jeans said, referring to an edict from Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority last year. “The Popular Mobilization Forces are not sectarian forces. They represent all of Iraq, and I want to help them liberate Iraq.”
Despite concerns over heightened sectarian strife, Shiite militiamen continue to pour into Iraq’s Sunni heartland of Anbar province with the initial hope of recapturing Fallujah, the first major Iraqi city to fall to the Islamic State group last year.
As the U.S. prepares to send an additional 450 personnel to Iraq, the Iranian-backed militias say that coalition assistance only hurts their efforts, contradicting statements by the Iraqi government that more international support is needed.