Creating new militias is taking Iraq a step closer to the militarisation of its society. Once the war against IS is finally over, will these militiamen lay down their arms? In Libya, the armed militias that led the revolution haven't done it. On the contrary, they're fighting amongst themselves in a brutal struggle for power that has plunged Libya into chaos.



Furthermore, in the last few months, looting and kidnappings have been carried out in several Iraqi cities by armed men dressed as militiamen. These types of incidents could start to spiral out of control if thousands of men, armed and hastily trained, are unleashed on Iraq.



It's the state that should be in charge of training. Unfortunately, nowadays the Iraqi state is very weak and doesn't have the means to contain the militias' growing influence.

Since June, a hundred or so camps like the one in Al-Qadisiyya have sprung up all over Iraq yet there is far from unanimous support for the idea of transforming students into militiamen, primarily because the state has no control over the militias. Moreover, the same militias have been accused on several occasions of carrying out human rights abuses.Iraqi political analyst Ahmad al-Abyadh fears that this military training of civilians will only worsen the country's security problems. report recently published by Amnesty International accuses Shiite militias fighting alongside the Iraqi army against IS of playing a large role in the worsening of Iraq's security situation. According to the NGO, the same militias have carried out dozens of summary executions against Sunni civilians in the last few months.