ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A fighter of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) allegedly killed an 11-year-old on Monday in the Abbasiya sub-district of Kirkuk’s Hawija, a source told The New Region.

The individual in question has been detained by security forces in Hawija, a source in the city’s police department told The New Region on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

Haider Muhannad al-Hantou, 11, from the Abbasiya village, had gathered with “a group of children near their home on the banks of the Tigris River” before “they were targeted by a security forces member, resulting in the immediate martyrdom of Haider,” a PMF official clarified in a public address on Tuesday.

A motive for the killing has yet to be confirmed at the time of writing this report.

The PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi, is an Iraqi militant faction that was formed upon a call by Iraq’s top Shiite authority Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani soon after the Islamic State (ISIS) took over large swathes of territory in Iraq. The force has been officially incorporated into the regular Iraqi defense forces, enjoying similar privileges as the Iraqi army.

The perpetrator was handed over to security forces by a PMF security director, the PMF official’s statement noted, while condemning the act “as a heinous crime that shakes the conscience and is completely devoid of all meanings of humanity and mercy,” adding that “there must be a serious review of those granted weapons and influence without oversight.”