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MANSOURIYA, Iraq Shiite militias backed by Iran are increasingly taking the lead in Iraqs fight against the Islamic State, threatening to undermine U.S. strategies intended to bolster the central government, rebuild the Iraqi army and promote reconciliation with the countrys embittered Sunni minority.

With an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 armed men, the militias are rapidly eclipsing the depleted and demoralized Iraqi army, whose fighting strength has dwindled to about 48,000 troops since the government forces were routed in the northern city of Mosul last summer, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

A recent offensive against Islamic State militants in the province of Diyala led by the Badr Organization further reinforced the militias standing as the dominant military force across a swath of territory stretching from southern Iraq to Kirkuk in the north.

As they assume a greater role, the militias are sometimes resorting to tactics that risk further alienating Sunnis and sharpening the sectarian dimensions of the fight.

They are also entrenching Irans already substantial hold over Iraq in ways that may prove difficult to reverse. Backed and in some instances armed and funded by Iran, the militias openly proclaim allegiance to Tehran. Many of the groups, such as the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kitaeb Hezbollah, are veterans of the fight to eject American troops in the years before their 2011 departure.

In one telling sign of how far Iraq is sliding into Irans orbit, giant billboards advertising the militias prowess and featuring portraits of Irans late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now partially obscure the plinth in central Baghdad where Saddam Husseins statue stood before U.S. Marines tore it down in 2003.

The militias growing clout is calling into question the sustainability of a strategy in which U.S. warplanes are bombing from the sky to advance the consolidation of power on the ground by groups that are backed by Iran and potentially hostile to the United States, analysts say.

If the fighting continues on its current trajectory, there is a real risk the United States will defeat the Islamic State but lose Iraq to Iran in the process, said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Though Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has welcomed American assistance and is calling for more, the militias strength threatens to undermine his authority and turn Iraq into a version of Lebanon, where a weak government is hostage to the whims of the powerful Hezbollah movement.

The Shiite militias dont want the Americans there and they never did, Knights said. Will we see an attempt by these Iranian-backed militias to push us out completely?

As U.S. commanders mull sending ground troops to assist a planned offensive to retake Mosul, some militia groups are already starting to question the need for U.S. help.

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Pro-Iran militias success in Iraq could undermine U.S.

BASRA, Iraq The historic canals that earned this city its nickname of the Venice of the Middle East are clogged with trash. In some neighborhoods, the garbage is piled so high it blocks streets.

Residents say the debris is just the most visible sign of decades of neglect of Basra by the government. Now, a growing number of citizens are pushing for autonomy for this oil-rich southern province of nearly 3 million people.

The local politicians backing the project envisage a semi-autonomous state not an independent nation. But their campaign presents a new challenge for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as he tries to prevent Iraq from splintering in the wake of Islamic States gains last summer in the countrys north.

The effort comes as the regions borders, drawn up by colonial powers with little consideration for the mix of sects and ethnicities on the ground, are fragmenting. That is testing the strong centralized governments that have dominated the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Proponents hope the Basra region will gain powers similar to those of Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region in Iraqs north. They have even designed their own flag depicting a pair of hands cradling a drop of oil, underscoring the main grievance here that Basra sees little benefit from the millions of barrels of oil that it pumps out of its fields.

Basra only gets neglect and injustice, but at the same time they are stealing our resources, Assad al-Idani, one of the campaign organizers, said of the central government as he addressed local residents at a Shiite meeting hall on a recent day.

Basra is the cow and they are taking the milk, but leaving the cow to starve, he told the crowd in the Hayy al-Ghadir neighborhood, as his team gathered signatures for their campaign. Its our oil.

The Iraqi constitution outlines a clear route for a province to become a semi-autonomous region.

The move requires a referendum, which must be held if a petition for autonomy either wins support from a third of the members of the provincial governing council or gets signatures from 10 percent of the regions registered voters around 160,000, in the case of Basra.

More than 100,000 signatures have been collected since the fall, according to Mohammed al-Tai, a member of parliament from Basra who is backing the initiative. But the exact total is unclear, since a variety of groups are collecting names.

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As war rages in the north, southern Iraq makes a bid for autonomy

Story highlights The frontline position in Eski Mosul is perhaps the most contested piece of real estate in northern Iraq Supported by coalition air strikes, the Kurds swept down to seize the area late last month In two days, the Peshmerga say, ISIS sent 20 vehicle bombs up the road

About 100 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were at this frontline position in Eski Mosul late last week, perhaps the most contested piece of real estate in northern Iraq. It sits at a junction that leads from Mosul to Tal Afar and beyond to the Syrian border -- a critical supply line for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Supported by coalition air strikes, the Kurds swept down to seize the area late last month.

Now they are engaged in daily battles with ISIS fighters, many of whom are local, according to Kurdish commanders who listen in on ISIS radio communications.

Between the sandbags and through the haze, a white building 800 yards away protected an ISIS position. After one mortar was (this time successfully) fired at the building, a sniper's bullet shot over the Kurds' position with a faint hiss -- as if to say "You missed."

The Peshmerga are now well dug in at Eski Mosul with mortar batteries, at least one MILAN anti-tank missile and heavy machine guns. The MILAN is especially useful for taking out vehicles rigged up as suicide bombs. The wreckage of one sits just 100 yards from the Kurds' defensive positions.

In two days, the Peshmerga say, ISIS sent 20 vehicle bombs up the road, a sign of how badly the terrorists want to retake this position. One had 8.5 tons of TNT primed to explode, according to Kurdish commanders, but its driver was shot and killed before he could detonate the device.

The importance of the crossroads was evident from the presence of a small detachment of British military personnel who covered their faces and quickly drove off at the first sign of a television crew. "No photos please," pleaded their Kurdish minder.

On the way to Eski Mosul, the villages around Zumar show the scars of ISIS occupation. Some buildings occupied by the group had been razed by air strikes. But many more were blown up by ISIS fighters as they retreated. Others were booby-trapped with cleverly-hidden explosive devices to await families coming home.

One elegant villa on a hill had been reduced to a jagged mix of concrete and steel wire. Crushed between cement slabs was a flat screen TV; a staircase lay at a crazy angle. The owner -- a Kurd -- stood outside, curling amber beads between his fingers. His nephew had come to the house with three others, he said. They opened the front door and there was a massive explosion.

The commander of this area and head of the Kurdistan Region Security Council is Masrour Barzani, one of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani's sons. At his well-guarded hilltop base, he waved his hand across a map of the region. The Peshmerga have retaken some 5,000 square miles of territory since the high-water mark of ISIS' expansion in this region, and now guard a front of some 700 miles -- an area stretching from Sinjar in the north to Kirkuk in the center of Iraq.

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