Iranian-backed militias based in Iraq are again attacking neighboring states and threatening the Middle East. On Monday and Tuesday, the militias targeted Saudi Arabia and the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.
It appears they also may be threatening Jordan, Israel, and Syria. This is in line with how the militias have behaved in the past. In recent decades, Iran has built up a network of militias in Iraq and linked them to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The most recent attacks by the militias have targeted Saudi Arabia and the Kurdistan Region. It also appears they may have launched an attack into Syria, as evidenced by anti-aircraft fire seen in Syria overnight. It is clear from the recent attacks that Iran is attempting to operationalize its proxy militias in Iraq.
To understand this, we need to know something about the background of the militias. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq emerged largely from Shi’ite armed groups that fought US and coalition forces after the 2003 invasion. Some, such as Badr, have origins going back to the 1980s.
Some of the leaders, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were involved in terrorist plots in Kuwait in the 1980s. Muhandis then rose to command Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah. He was killed in a US drone strike in 2020 together with IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
How Iran built its Iraqi militia network
The Quds Force provided funding, weapons, training, and other support to these militias. Asaib Ahl al-Haq grew out of links to the Mahdi Army, while Kataib Hezbollah emerged around 2006.
After ISIS captured large areas of Iraq in 2014, many Shi’ite militias mobilized under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Although the PMF was subsequently incorporated into Iraq’s security structure, many factions retained close relationships with Tehran and developed significant political and economic ties with IRGC influence.
The US classifies several major Iranian-backed Iraqi militias as both Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). They include Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada.
The identity of the groups that carried out the attacks on Monday and Tuesday remains unknown.
Kataib Hezbollah usually has been behind sophisticated or long-range drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. It also sent militia members into Syria during the Syrian civil war, establishing a headquarters in Albukamal. Its members left Syria when the Assad regime fell.
Asaib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais Khazali went to Lebanon in 2017 and threatened Israel.
These groups are close to Hezbollah. It now appears that they may threaten Syria. Damascus is seen as having closer ties with the US today, and Syria has hinted that it might pressure Hezbollah. Damascus also has stopped arms smuggling to Hezbollah via Syria.
Earlier this month, Iran claimed to have targeted an area near Tanf in Syria. Tanf is a site of a former US garrison that was established to back Syrian rebel groups fighting ISIS. The garrison was closed in February.
Kataib Hezbollah has also targeted Tower 22, a US military outpost in northeast Jordan, killing three Americans in January 2024.
It’s possible Iran is now seeking to use the militias in Iraq for new rounds of threats to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and also possibly to threaten Israel or US forces.
THIS IS something the militias did in the past. Iran could use “The Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” which emerged as an umbrella label used by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq following the October 7 massacre in 2023.
Groups operating under that banner claimed numerous drone and rocket attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria, as well as attacks targeting Israel, presenting themselves as part of Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance” in recent years.
Drone attacks widen across the region
There also are Iranian-backed militias in the Nineveh Plains near Mosul. Attacks against the region in recent days had come from the area of Mosul, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said.
Diverse groups of Christians, Yazidis, and other minority communities live in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq.
The Popular Mobilization Forces’ 30th Brigade, linked to the Shabak community, emerged during the war against ISIS. It subsequently established significant influence around Mosul and the Nineveh Plains. It is linked to Badr, one of the largest militias in the PMF. Badr is not sanctioned by the US.
In the past, militias in the Nineveh Plains used Bongo trucks with 122-mm. rockets to target the Erbil area of the Kurdistan Regional Government. There are US forces in Erbil and a US consulate.
In recent months, the attacks have come from drones. This is part of the militias’ movement to acquire more drones from Iran over the past six years.
The full details of the drone attacks over the past few days remain to be seen.
“The Royal Jordanian Air Force intercepted and shot down a drone that breached Jordanian airspace early Tuesday, the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army said,” Petra, Jordan’s official news agency, reported.
The army did not say where it came from.
Just before 6 a.m. on Tuesday, the IDF said: “A short while ago, the Israel Air Force intercepted a UAV in the area of the Jordan border. The UAV did not cross into Israeli territory. The origin of the launch is under review.”
The IDF did not say where the UAV came from. On Monday, the IDF said it had “intercepted two UAVs identified in the area of the Jordan border.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has indicated that he wants to place all weapons in Iraq under state control. This means militias are supposed to disarm.
It also means they may pretend that since they are part of the PMF, they are already under state control. For instance, Badr will make this claim because it is the largest militia within the PMF.
Zaidi did not specifically name the militias he intends to see disarmed. The hard-core members of the “Islamic resistance” have said they will not disarm and have indicated they will resist.
Kataib Hezbollah and the hard-core are well armed and have shown they are willing to threaten countries around Iraq at the behest of Iran.
The attacks on Monday and Tuesday illustrate how Iran wants to operationalize these groups even as US-Iran tensions appear to be temporarily reduced in the Strait of Hormuz.