IRAQ Fabled sniper becomes hero among Shiites
BASRA, Iraq — Ali Jayad al-Salhi, a veteran sniper in an Iraqi militia, was killed in fighting with the Islamic State group last year. He then vaulted into legend, virtually becoming a new saint for the Shiite community.
Posters of al-Salhi adorn storefronts, homes and car windows in his home city of Basra and other Shiite areas. One bakery even sells cakes with his face. Poems praise his valor and piety. His rifle, with which he’s said to have killed nearly 400 militants, is now in a museum in the holiest Shiite city, Karbala.
The fervor surrounding him points to the near messianic mystique that has grown up around Iraq’s Shiite militias in tandem with their increasing political and military might after they helped defeat the Islamic State group. Known as the “Popular Mobilization Forces” or “Hashed” in Arabic, the militias — many of them backed by Iran — have emerged from the war with an image among Iraq’s Shiite majority as virtually a holy force. The popular aura further buttresses the Hashed as it stands poised to play a major role in post-Islamic State Iraq.
It’s a stark contrast to the Sunni Muslim minority’s view of the fighters. The Hashed is accused of abuses of the Sunni population in areas it seized from Islamic State, and Sunnis see the militias as a tool for Shiite powerhouse Iran to dominate Iraq.
Many Shiites trumpet the Hashed as champions bringing their community out of centuries of oppression and embodying a belief central to Shiism — that victory will come from martyrdom. The militiamen are seen as the successors to one of the faith’s most revered figures, Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in the 7th century by rival Muslims at Karbala, in what is now southern Iraq, in a battle that led to the Sunni-Shiite split.
Some even speak of the Hashed in apocalyptic terms, linking them to Imam Mahdi, a Shiite religious leader said to have vanished 1,100 years ago and expected to return leading an army to defeat evil in the world. The Hashed, supporters say, will be that army.
The Hashed emerged after Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for volunteers in June 2014 to join jihad against the militants. Tens of thousands heeded the call, enlisting in multiple militia factions.
After victory, the mix of religious tradition and pop culture, poetry and song has become even more passionate.
The Hashed intensely publicizes the deaths of its commanders, announcing their martyrdom on giant street posters.
Al-Salhi has been held up as the ideal pious Shiite. Poems in his honor have been read to mournful crowds. Thousands attended his funeral in the holy city of Najaf, where he was laid to rest in the Valley of Peace, a vast Shiite cemetery near the shrine of Imam Ali, the Shiites’ most revered figure.