Commercial truck drivers in Iraq say that as they go about their business, they face extortion attempts and delays as the result of a patchwork of checkpoints Iran-backed militias have set up along main roads and highways.
As they pass through territories the militias control, they are forced to pay bribes at the checkpoints, a driver says.
If they refuse, the militias do not allow them passage for hours, sometimes even days, with the delays leading to goods rotting on trucks and heavy financial losses.
“We have identity cards, and all our documents are legal and valid, yet we are stopped and extorted to pay the militias what they demand in order to pass through,” the driver said — sometimes at multiple checkpoints.
The tolls demanded by the militias are illegal and random and vary based on the cargo, with militiamen occasionally demanding as much as $500 per truck.
Extortion is a “major artery” of funding for the militias and is indispensable to them, said strategy analyst Alaa al-Nashou.
Money flows in from forced tributes without much effort on the militias’ part, he explained, noting that militiamen need only demonstrate their ability to harm truck drivers in order to force them to pay.
Political writer Abdul Karim al-Wazzan says, they also reap enormous profit from smuggling operations and the acquisition of oil fields, wells and other national resources in Iraq.
The government is making efforts to curb the militias’ hegemony and has taken some positive steps, he said, including imposing the rule of law at border crossings.
But he called for “more robust and resolute measures to dry up the militias’ sources of funding, especially those accrued from extortion activities”.
In December, a series of attacks targeted stores selling alcoholic beverages in Baghdad. Storeowners said they had refused to pay tribute to the IRGC-aligned militias and accused them of being behind the bombings.
Source: Al-Mashareq
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