Current Concerns of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq
On 22 Jan. 2026, we asked the IntelCenter Domain GenAI what the current concerns of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq are. At the time, the IntelCenter Domain GenAI had more than 1.2 billion words of knowledge from non-state actors. You can talk directly to the IntelCenter Domain GenAI via the IntelCenter Database (ICD) and the IntelCenter API. Here is its response:
IntelCenter Domain GenAI:
Based on the provided ICD holdings, the PMF’s current concerns in Iraq center on legal status, institutionalization, welfare, infrastructure, political pressure, and security readiness:
1. **Legal and institutional clarity**
PMF speakers repeatedly stress the need for amendments or new legislation to define the force’s structure, ranks, duties, rights, retirement, uniforms, vehicle identification, and officer/personnel training systems. Several sources describe a draft or pending law, including service and retirement provisions, as central to formalizing the PMF as a military institution under Iraqi state authority (ICD Video Component 287131, ICD Video Component 249161, ICD Video Component 432740, ICD Video Component 432741).
2. **Protection of member rights and welfare**
PMF-linked messaging highlights concern that fighters receive only soldier-level salaries, which are described as insufficient to address poverty. Other materials emphasize service, retirement, health insurance, care for families of “martyrs,” and compensation for wounded personnel as unresolved or important institutional priorities (ICD Video Component 287131, ICD Video Component 192014, ICD Video Component 442712).
3. **Lack of proper camps and infrastructure**
A recurring concern is that the PMF lacks adequate camps and infrastructure. PMF messaging calls for land allocations and budget support to build camps outside cities, including around Mosul, so the force can maintain readiness while reducing its urban footprint (ICD Video Component 287131, ICD Video Component 432740, ICD Video Component 432741).
4. **Political disputes, interference, and separation from factions**
PMF leaders and affiliated speakers frame political disputes as creating uncertainty over the PMF’s future. Recent messaging also emphasizes “separating” or “untangling” the PMF from political, partisan, social, or factional affiliations so it can function through its own laws, procedures, and internal mechanisms as a state-aligned military institution (ICD Video Component 250182, ICD Video Component 250183, ICD Video Component 432736, ICD Video Component 432741).
5. **Legitimacy and resistance to dissolution or merger**
PMF messaging continues to defend the organization’s legitimacy as a legal, official Iraqi force rooted in law, religious authority, popular will, and sacrifice. Speakers express concern over calls to dissolve the PMF after the defeat of ISIS and argue that the force remains necessary because of continuing regional and internal threats (ICD Video Component 233429, ICD Video Component 287128, ICD Video Component 249166).
6. **Security threats, terrorism, and readiness**
PMF materials portray the force as still needed to confront terrorism, extremist cells, regional instability, and threats to Iraq’s sovereignty and political order. One report says PMF units were placed on “full alert” with instructions to increase preparedness and screening against infiltration, suspicious movement, and terrorist threats (ICD Video Component 249854, ICD Video Component 432735, ICD Image Component 2185900).
7. **Modernization, training, and professional development**
The PMF also presents modernization as a current priority, including technical advancement, training, adoption of new technologies, and creation of a PMF academy or broader education/training ecosystem to professionalize personnel and leadership (ICD Video Component 246096, ICD Video Component 246144, ICD Video Component 237186, ICD Video Component 353302).
Overall, the ICD material shows the PMF portraying itself as concerned with becoming a more formalized, legally protected, better resourced, politically separated, and operationally ready Iraqi security institution while defending its continued legitimacy and role inside Iraq.