BAGHDAD: Iraqi Shiite paramilitary groups who took part in the war against Daesh (ISIS) militants should be incorporated into state security bodies, the nation’s top Shiite Islamic scholar said. In a message delivered at the Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala through one of his representatives, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said all weapons used in fighting the insurgents should be brought under the control of the Iraqi government.

Sistani’s position is in line with that of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who wants to prevent commanders of the militias known as Al-Hashd al-Shaabi from using power and clout they acquired during the war in elections due on May 12.

Sistani was the author of a landmark fatwa, or religious decree, which urged Iraqis to volunteer for the war on Daesh after the government’s armed forces collapsed in 2014 and the militants swept toward the gates of Baghdad.

“The victory over Daesh doesn’t mean the end of the battle with terrorism,” Sistani’s representative Sheikh Abdel-Mehdi al-Karbalai said, mentioning the existence of “sleeper cells.”

“The security apparatus should be supported by the fighters who took part in the war on Daesh,” he added in the sermon broadcast on state TV.

“It is necessary to absorb the fighters in the official and constitutional structures,” Sistani said in the sermon, adding that “the fatwa should not be used to achieve political aims.”

Abadi quickly reacted to Sistani’s sermon in a statement from his office “welcoming his call against using volunteers and fighters in political campaigning.”

Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish politicians have called on Abadi, who declared victory over Daesh last week, to disarm Al-Hashd al-Shaabi. They say the militias are responsible for widespread abuses including extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and displacing non-Shiite populations, and in effect report to Tehran, not the government in Baghdad.

Al-Hashd al-Shaabi says any abuses were isolated incidents and not systematic and that those who committed them have been punished.

Two of the most important Iranian-backed paramilitary leaders, Hadi al-Amiri and Qais al-Khazali, said this week they were putting their militias under Abadi’s orders.

Their decision to formally separate their armed and political wings could pave the way for them to contest the elections, possibly as part of a broader alliance close to Iran.

Iran gave training and weapons to the most powerful Hashd groups including Amiri’s Badr Organization and Khazali’s Asaib Ahl al-Haq. The Iraqi Parliament last year voted for Al-Hashd to be a separate military corps reporting to Abadi.