Eli Lake, Columnist

Iran's Militias Are Taking Over Iraq's Army

U.S. is now directly aiding the Badr Corps, a Shiite militia backed by Iran.

February 3, 2015 at 6:24 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Meet the Badr Corps.
Photographer: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images

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On the front lines of Iraq’s war against Islamic State, it’s increasingly difficult to tell where the Iraqi army ends and the Iranian-supported Shiite militias begin.

Official U.S. policy has been to support the Iraqi Security Forces as both a hammer against the Sunni jihadists and also as a way to absorb the the Shiite militias that threaten to drive Iraq’s Sunni minority to support anti-government terrorism.