New Iraqi militia registers to lobby

The Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) and the Nineveh Plain Protection Units have combined and registered to lobby political figures in Washington as a means to circumvent the obstacles faced in Baghdad. The group is looking to politicians in Washington for support because of "bureaucratic intransigence" the unwillingness of Iraq's ruling party in Baghdad to work with them in providing them the ability to protect the Assyrian population on the Nineveh plain.

The rise of these groups is in part due to the successful lobbying by American Assyrians and Congressman Henry Hyde and to a "crowd-funding campaign in the U.S. and Europe, which sought to bolster Christians in the fight against ISIS."

In their federal filings they say the defense fund "is supportive of policed that would provide financial, logistical, and training directly to the Nineveh Plain Protection Units of Iraq, "as well as policies that would provide financial, logistical, humanitarian, and economic development support directly to the indigenous ethno-religious minorities of the Nineveh Plains of Iraq and their non-governmental organizations"