senator udall. mr. udall: thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you both for your service and thank you for being here today. secretary mattis, the existence of multiple local militia forces in iraq remains a major problem, as isil is driven out. kurdish aspirations ofhood may -- of the tip of the statehood may be just the tip of the iceberg. how many different groups are the department of defense advising and assisting in iraq? mr. mattis: we advise and assist iraqi security forces only in iraq and i would just mention that secretary tillerson just returned from there and this issue was brought up with the prime minister. mr. tillerson: yes. the prime minister is asserting authority himself over other various militias, including popular mobilization forces, the p.m.f., which are by and large iraqi forces, they are iraqi citizens who are fighting under militia arrangements. including the peshmerga forces of kurdistan during the war to defight isis, to liberate mosul. to liberate large parts of other provinces. these forces put themselves