A handwritten petition addressed to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the prime minister and PMF leadership, attributed to families of fighters and martyrs of the Turkmen Brigade 63, states that the commander of North Operations and East Tigris is politicising the brigade and using force to impose a brigade commander the fighters reject, warns this could lead to bloodshed, chaos and a security vacuum, and asks for a high fact-finding committee "before we resort to other options guaranteed by the constitution and the law". It was posted this morning by the KSS-affiliated Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi with the document image, and summarised sixteen minutes earlier by the KSS-affiliated iNEWS. Both carriers are KSS-linked and the document's submission is not independently established, which holds the rung below credible.
- iNEWSKSS — affiliated/aligned media14 Aug, 14:08
“Families of the fighters and martyrs of Brigade 63 appeal to the Najaf religious authority and the government to end partisan interference”
عوائل مجاهدي وشهداء اللواء 63 يناشدون مرجعية النجف والحكومة لإنهاء التدخلات الحزبية
- Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibiKSS — affiliated/aligned media14 Aug, 14:24
“They appeal to Sayyid al-Sistani and the prime minister to intervene to stop the politicisation of the PMF and prevent the commander of North Operations and East Tigris from imposing a brigade commander by force … this will lead to bloodshed and plunge the area into chaos and a security vacuum … before we resort to other options guaranteed by the constitution and the law”
يناشدون السيد السيستاني دام ظله ورئيس الوزراء للتدخل لوقف تسييس الحشد الشعبي ومنع فرض قائد عمليات الشمال وشرق دجلة أمر لواء بالقوة … سيؤدي إلى اراقة الدماء و ادخال المنطقة إلى فوضى و فراغ أمني … قبل أن نلجأ إلى خيارات أخرى كفها الدستور و القانون
A contested brigade command inside the PMF is being fought in public, with non-militia Shia religious authority named as the arbiter over the force's own leadership.