Misrata is home to Libya Dawn's most powerful militias — comprising around 40,000 members in 200 groups — and its fighters are deployed on numerous fronts, including south of the capital where a force of army remnants and allied militias loyal to the HOR are pressing forward, led by General Khalifa Haftar.
Within hours after Taliban troops entered the city, a Northern Alliance militia comprised of Hazara troops backed out of the deal and attacked the Taliban.
Aleppo has also been under heavy ground attack by forces allied to the Syrian army, including the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas militia, comprised largely of Iraqi Shias who have travelled to Syria to support the regime.
The militias, often comprised of former insurgents paid to embed themselves in communities, supported American military efforts and provided reliable local security to aid workers and other organizations.
These groups, essentially Sunni militias, are comprised of tribes and former insurgents who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) and other extremist militants in late 2006, long before the surge was even proposed.
But recent publicity that some Ukrainian militias are comprised of neo Nazis frightens some politicians and donors.
Prosecutors say the militia group comprised an unknown number of active and former members of the military.
Their role is to act as a buffer between fighters from the Kurdish militias that comprise the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed rebel groups.
One Tripoli militia comprising about 50 gunmen is operating out of an appropriated computer-showroom decked out with revolutionary tricoloured flags.
The Washington Post reports that Shia militia comprise up to 120,000 fighters.
When fully implemented, our security will be guaranteed by local militia comprising at a minimum 4 to 5 million armed citizens, a militia two to three times as large as the armed forces.
