… France24 researchers verified a number of videos showing Momika in military clothing, associating with members of other militias. They concluded he was the same man who founded a political party in Iraq, the Syriac Democratic Union Party, in 2014, as well as an associated militia.
Momika’s own militia, which, like many others at the time, was originally set up to fight the extremist “Islamic State” (IS) group, appears to later have been linked with a motley variety of other groups in Iraq. That includes militias with Shiite Muslim affiliations that support, and are supported by, neighboring Iran, as well as Kurdish militias that espouse a more atheist and communist agenda. Iraqi journalists wrote that Momika left the country because of a power struggle with the leader of another Christian militia.
Momika is also thought to have supported the cleric al-Sadar at one stage, and then to have also agreed with anti-government protests in Iraq. A town council member told the publication The New Arab that Momika had committed fraud in his hometown.
