IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT WARNS OF GROWING POWER OF IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS By Carlo Muñoz Iraqi Vice President  Osama al-Nujaifi , the top government official representing the country’s Sunni minority, on Tuesday denied claims that  Baghdad  is pressing the Trump administration to directly arm and train the country’s Sunni militias to counter the growing influence of Iranian-backed Shia paramilitaries.Speaking to reporters after a speech at the  Washington -based U.S. Institute for Peace,   Osama al-Nujaifi  said he had not come to lobby the U.S. government for military support on behalf of  Iraq ’s Sunni armed groups. But he also said in his address that the growing firepower of Iranian-backed Shiite militias looms as the nation’s most pressing future security threat now that Islamic State has been pushed out of Mosul, Tal Afar and other cities it held in the north. The Iranian-backed forces “have gained a lot of power, and maybe they can ...