There has been a lot of talk about ISIS lately, but less about the people who are fighting a dirty war against them since the Iraqi army and police collapsed this summer: sectarian Shia militias backed by Iran. I have a story out in the current issue of Rolling Stone—the one with Kendrick Lamar on the cover—that details Iraq’s frightening descent into a fragmented militia state, and what this means for the US’s campaign against ISIS.
Late last year, I traveled to Baghdad, and found that, while the militias have been brutally effective at pushing back ISIS, in many areas they’ve committed war crimes against Sunni civilian populations that will only further entrench the sectarian roots of the conflict. In some cases, they've done so with US-supplied weaponry. Read the full story here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-baghdads-brutal-battle-against-isis-20150313
Photo by Haidar Hamdani/AFP/Getty