it cannot be much more correct(ed): Sunni PMU recovered antiquities from Islamic State in Iraq

Fortunately, I’m running out of ways to get this wrong. I initially saw the list of participants in the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMUs) in Iraq – Shia, Sunni, Christian and Yezidi – and assumed that they were Kurdish, as Yezidis are Kurdish.

I did note that Iraqi News had identified the forces as Shia (with the implication that they were Arab Shia). And I noted it with a question mark, because I have had bad experiences with other Iraqi News reports.

Indeed, I even ignored the (British) Telegraph’s report on the Arab Sunni person whose name was given to the unit – Umayyah Naji Jabara, who was killed in combat against the Islamic State in 2014, whose father Sheikh Naji Jabara had been killed in an assassination by al-Qaeda in 2007. I removed the question mark and rewrote the title (and address) of the post.

However, while al-Hashd al-Shaabi or al-Hashd al-Watani forces include Kurds, and while those PMUs are overwhelmingly Shia forces, Ummaya Al Jabbara is a Sunni unit.

Thanks to ARCA‘s Lynda Albertson @sauterne, for the initial Kurdish/Shia query; to @WatcherOnTheDot, for pushing me to look at the Telegraph; and to Steven Ishak Nabil @stevoiraq, who confirmed that this unit was Sunni.

Tags: Caliphate Daash Daesh Daish IS ISIL ISIS Islamic State, Hashd, Iraq, Tikrit