When the call to fight ISIS came, the ranks of volunteers in Iraq extended for a long time.

Friends raised money to pay for transportation to local faction recruitment offices.

Young men were already rushing in buses heading to the front lines to stop the advance of ISIS towards the capital, Baghdad at the time.

In their report, published by the American newspaper "The Washington Post", the writers Louisa Lovelak and Mustafa Selim said that with the retreat of the Iraqi army, the Shiite factions often had the responsibility to defeat ISIS militants.

For many in the southern city of Nasiriyah, they felt as if it was a battle for Iraq.

Recalling the 2014 battles in which two of his brothers were killed, former fighter Thamer Al-Safi said, "At the time, it was only about one thing: This was for our future. This was for Iraq."

Many people in southern Iraq joined the Shiite factions while fighting ISIS (Al-Jazeera)

Distant consequences

This mass mobilization had far-reaching consequences, as the victorious factions were able to reach higher levels of power that set them on a path to confront the United States.

With Iran's support in many cases, the factions have stepped up their missile attacks on US military sites in recent years, threatening to spark a wider war between the United States and Iran so far, while senior officials in Washington and Tehran talk about resuming diplomatic contacts.

While some American officials viewed the Shiite factions as nothing more than proxies for Iran in its campaign to expand its regional influence, these groups were often rooted in the fabric of Iraqi society and were born out of its turbulent history.

The two writers mentioned that some factions have roots that go back decades.

Their official network, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, was established in 2014 with widespread support from residents across southern Iraq, after tens of thousands responded to the call of then Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the fatwa of the supreme Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to fight ISIS militants.

Now, as some Iraqis fear these Iranian-backed factions, grievances extend far beyond Tehran's influence to include concerns about what these groups have become and the promises they have broken.

The factions today are a source of economic power and an enhancer of the political system.

It permeates all of the country's institutions, and when mass protests against the government broke out in October 2019, Iran-backed armed groups quelled them with lethal force.

Human rights groups have often accused some factions of committing violations.

Many families of the dead factions were left to fend for their wounds after they were abandoned (Al-Jazeera)

Feeling of regret

"I regret letting my brother fight. I pray every day that I live long enough to take care of his children," said Abdullah, 58, a former militia volunteer who spoke on the condition that his title was withheld for fear of retaliation, as did the others I interviewed. He pointed out that an ISIS sniper killed his brother Haider in an ambush during the fall of 2014.

And in Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar province in the south of the country, pictures of dead recruits like Haidar line the streets on faded billboards, as if they are ghosts from the past talking about how much this dilapidated city has sacrificed to defeat ISIS.

The faces of these "martyrs" appear prominently in the factions' recruitment campaigns.

As compensation for their deaths, the families of the martyrs have traditionally received lands and monthly payments from the umbrella committee that manages all PMF affairs.

But for some of the poorest families, these benefits are now beginning to diminish, fueling discontent with the factions they once depended on for social safety.

Across Nasiriyah, as well as in southern cities, some of the families of the dead were left to gather their wounds, as they are publicly celebrated for the courage of their children, but they feel that the factions that their sons fought and died for have abandoned them and sometimes betrayed them.

"They promised us the lands, they promised us compensation. The last time I went to their offices, I threw all our papers on their desks and told them I wish I had never sent my son to be a martyr," said 59-year-old Starr.

Hanging on the wall is a worn picture of his young son Mushtaq, who was a football fanatic and who was 18 years old when he was seriously injured while fighting for the Badr Organization, which is linked to Iran in 2015. In his last call to his family, Mushtaq said he was on his way abroad in 2015. patrol.

But the squad was attacked and he did not survive while being transported to the hospital.

The family stated that, until last year, they received 900,000 Iraqi dinars per month (equivalent to a little more than $ 600) from the Badr Organization, but they received no explanation as to why the payments stopped.

The factions were a source of concern for Washington, which accused many of them of being behind attacks targeting their interests in Iraq (Al-Jazeera)

Targeting the Americans

Although the Iraqi network of factions includes groups from most of the country's religious sects, Shiite factions dominate, and many of them are backed by Iran.

Prominent factions such as Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat al-Nujaba, and the Badr Organization have been a major concern of US officials, who have accused several of them in recent months of using front groups to launch missile attacks on US military and diplomatic facilities.

These attacks have resulted in the deaths of Americans and other foreign individuals, as well as Iraqi citizens, and on several occasions the United States has launched retaliatory strikes, resulting in the killing of militia members.

The assassination of former US President Donald Trump's administration, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iraqi crowd near Baghdad airport early last year, led to an escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran on Iraqi soil.

And with some factions announcing their intention to expel the US military from Iraq, there are still risks of more deaths and an escalation of violence between the United States and Iran.

Groups such as the Badr Organization, founded in 1982 from exile in Iran, had been at work in Iraqi politics long before the recent conflict.

It was well-positioned to recruit fighters in the summer when Islamic State militants took control of major Iraqi cities like Mosul and Tikrit in the north.

The Badr Organization had an extensive network of offices, and many of the recruits already had links with the organization.

But others, like Mushtaq, joined because they were concerned about ISIS's advance and its control of many Iraqi cities and eager to fight, with Badr's office being the closest.

“His friends were collecting money and the Badr Organization office was the closest, so he agreed to register there. He said they took them without training to the front lines immediately,” Starr said, looking at his hands.

The Popular Mobilization Forces are using funds from the Iraqi public budget to pay for the families of the war dead.

However, there is little accountability about the outcome of these funds.

Decisions about which groups to be funded and how much funding are made are made by a panel of senior faction leaders outside government oversight, according to a research paper prepared by Chatham House.

The Iraqi budget allocates about $ 68 million to buy land for the families of martyrs, but only 3,500 plots of land have been allocated to relatives of the dead who have fought with the factions since 2014, according to the Iraqi Martyrs Foundation.

Some Iraqi families say they believe their compensation is cut because it is no longer useful to the factions, while others said they received no explanation.

On the other hand, officials from the Martyrs Foundation, who are involved in the process of allocating the payments, said they were not aware of any problems, but indicated that bureaucratic delays may be the cause.

Defend the country

In a small house on the outskirts of Nasiriyah, built on land earmarked as compensation for the families of the martyrs, a picture of another fighter who was killed was hung, with a smile on his face expressing his appreciation for his sacrifice. He wore a green uniform and appears in the photo next to a religious shrine in Iraq.

His father, Emad, said he quarreled with Ali over his decision to shut down his booming electronics business to join Harakat al-Nujaba, which was recruiting volunteers locally.

Imad recalls, "I told him that Iraq did not deserve to die for it. All that this country will ask of you is duties, it will not grant you your rights. But he said: No, I want to defend my country."

Ali, who was in his early twenties, was killed in 2016 while trying to defuse an explosive device in Samarra, north of the capital, Baghdad.

The land they live on is arid and disconnected from the city's sewage network.

When the sun sets, it is reflected from the stagnant water that floods the pathway to their home.

"There is a feeling of frustration in general among many families like us," said Imad.

Ali's brother, Hussein, said he joined the anti-government protests in his attempt to save Iraq.

"My brother joined the fight for the same reason that made me join the protests. We care about our country. He would never have joined the factions if he knew what would happen next," he said.