How Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi turned into an Iranian foreign policy instrument

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Updated 21 August 2021
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How Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi turned into an Iranian foreign policy instrument

  • Conglomeration of predominantly Shiite militias was first formed in June 2014 to defend Iraq against Daesh
  • Given its investments in its proxy networks, Iran is unlikely to relinquish control over Hashd, analysts say

IRBIL, IRAQI KURDISTAN: It is seven years since their yellow flag first appeared in the campaign against Daesh, the extremist group which seized swathes of northern Iraq and eastern Syria. After Daesh captured large parts of northern Iraq, including Mosul, in 2014, the fighters of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces, won the admiration of many Iraqis for heeding Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani’s call to arms.

Since then, the umbrella organization of mainly Shiite militias has, however, adopted a more sinister cause. Last month, a convoy of Hashd fighters mounted a show of strength in Baghdad’s Green Zone, the center of Iraq’s political life, and forced the country’s elected leaders to release Qassim Musleh, a Hashd commander close to Iran who had been arrested in the western Anbar province.

Musleh has a reputation as a brutal operator. In late 2019, thousands of mainly young Iraqis took to the center of Baghdad to protest against systemic corruption and Iran’s influence over their country’s affairs.

After days of protests, snipers believed to be from Hashd units took to nearby rooftops and killed dozens of people. Musleh and his Iranian sponsors are thought to have been instrumental in ordering the killings. His recent arrest was in connection with the May 9 murder of Ihab Al-Wazni, a prominent activist in the southern shrine city of Karbala.

“Many Iraqi activists have been speaking out against Iran-backed militias’ ability to operate outside the boundaries of the law, and it makes sense that the militias would then seek to silence anyone working to constrain their positions of power,” Emily Hawthorne, a Middle East and North Africa analyst for Strator — a RANE Company, told Arab News.

Kyle Orton, an independent Middle East researcher, believes Iranian-controlled militias in Iraq were behind the worst atrocities against anti-corruption protesters. “The Hashd is fairly clearly more powerful than the Iraqi security forces, both in its ability to control the social and street-level space, and the political sphere, with its control of key ministries and its effective veto-wielding bloc in parliament,” he told Arab News.

The Hashd was first formed in June 2014 to defend Iraq against Daesh after that group conquered Mosul.

In 2018, about 30 militias under the Al-Hashd-Al-Shaabi umbrella were formally included in — and paid by — the Iraqi security forces. It has a significant presence in the Iraq parliament through the Fateh coalition, which has more than 40 seats in the 329-seat assembly.

On the ground, Hashd units have repeatedly targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase in Anbar and even Irbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, both of which host US troops and personnel. The US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone has also been repeatedly targeted.




Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi fighters gather around the Tal Afar airport, west of Mosul, as they and Iraqi forces backed by local militia and a US-led coalition advanced in driving Daesh from the city in August 2017. (AFP/File)

While most of these attacks were with short-range rockets, the more recent ones have been carried out using explosive-laden attack drones, underscoring the evolving capabilities of such groups.

“The motivations for these operations are a confluence of issues,” Joel Wing, author of the “Musings on Iraq” blog, told Arab News. “Both the Hashd brigades and Iran want the US military out of Iraq. It would be a great victory for them if that happened.”

For Iran, proxy attacks by Iraqi militias are a way for it “to pressure the US over its (Iran’s) nuclear program and sanctions.”

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The array of units under the Hashd umbrella is bewildering. There are militias loyal to Al-Sistani, widely viewed as a figure of moderation and an opponent of overseas interference in Iraq. There are even tribal defense units, the so-called Sunni Hashd.

These groups exist to make the organization seem more diverse and legitimate, both domestically and internationally. “The reality is this is a ‘popular front’ tactic. All these groups are dependent and subordinate to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” Orton said.

Behind an elaborate facade of names and acronyms, Iran is sponsoring an array of more effective paramilitary groups, according to the analysts. “The most powerful brigades within the Hashd are all pro-Iran,” Wing said, identifying them as the Badr Organization, Asaib Ahl Al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah.




Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, head of the Kataib Hezbollah, was killed beside Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad’s international airport. (AFP/File)

Iranian policy in Iraq has, however, had its share of setbacks. In January 2020, the US killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s overseas arm, in a drone strike. Soleimani was the architect of Iranian policy in Iraq and elsewhere across the Middle East, from Lebanon to Syria and Yemen.

Tellingly, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, head of the Kataib Hezbollah, was killed beside Soleimani as they were being driven from Baghdad’s international airport.

In May, Reuters reported that Iran had changed its strategy vis-a-vis its militia proxies. Instead of relying on the larger established groups, Tehran has started to form small elite groups that are more loyal and better trained to do its bidding in the region.

“This shift in strategy grants both Iran and established groups like Kataib Hezbollah plausible deniability whenever a smaller, likely linked group conducts an attack. It is indicative of a desire to protect the political position in Baghdad that a well-known group like Kataib Hezbollah enjoys,” Hawthorne, the Stratfor analyst, told Arab News.

Both Wing and Orton believe that the shift to smaller units masks a commitment to continued domination via plausible deniability. “Today, it’s unclear whether Iran is attempting to regain control of these factions or simply backing all the new front groups that Hashd brigades have created, to deny responsibility for attacks upon US targets in Iraq,” Wing said.

Soleimani’s death may well have caused Iran’s different power centers to experiment with divergent interests and objectives. The power centers range from the Quds Force, which organizes and trains Tehran’s proxy militias across the Middle East, to the Iranian foreign ministry.

“It has been reported that they don’t all agree on how to use their Iraqi allies,” Wing told Arab News. “The Hashd brigades were also competing with each other for a period to try to show which one was the leader of the resistance within Iraq, and the attacks were part of that.”

Orton sees Iran as adopting the same model in Iraq as it did in Lebanon in the 1980s, when it split Hezbollah from Amal, previously the dominant Shiite militia in the country. “The use of ‘new’ pseudo-groups or fronts, where they exist — some are entirely imaginary, existing solely online to claim recent attacks — is just the latest iteration of this effort to embed the Islamic Revolution in local conditions.”

That effort appears to be back on track following Soleimani’s killing. Hashd seems to be succeeding in spreading its control over broad areas of the northern Middle East. Musleh, the man at the center of the latest clashes between the militia and central government in Baghdad, is head of the Hashd in Anbar, traditionally a Sunni stronghold.

Hashd fighters have taken part in battles in neighboring Syria to help Iran prop up the Assad regime in Damascus. Hashd groups also proved instrumental in Iran’s ability to move weapons overland across Iraq into Syria.

Groups such as Kataib Hezbollah control important border points with Syria in both Anbar and Nineveh in northern Iraq, in addition to their own smuggling routes. “They are able to move men and material back and forth at will,” Wing told Arab News, referring to the paramilitary forces.

That said, Iran has been forced to change tactics in response to risks from the Israeli Air Force. Instead of shipping missiles through Iraq to its militia proxies in Syria, it has begun delivering smaller pieces of equipment along with advisers. These are much less detectable.

Given all that it has invested in these networks, the analysts are skeptical that Iran will relinquish control over them, even if it means a comprehensive nuclear deal with the US and Western powers that includes extensive sanctions relief for its economy.

“Iran will never ‘cut off’ any of the Iraqi militias, Hezbollah or the Houthis, because it cannot; they are integral, organic parts of the revolution,” Orton told Arab News.

“Any proposal in the nuclear negotiations for Iran to in some way trade its ‘proxies’ is a non-starter as such.”

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Twitter: @pauliddon

 


Israel strikes south Lebanon, Aoun holds urgent talks to halt attacks

Updated 08 May 2025
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Israel strikes south Lebanon, Aoun holds urgent talks to halt attacks

  • Hezbollah field commander killed, civilians injured in 19 airstrikes across Nabatieh area
  • Nawaf Salam condemned the Israeli strikes on Nabatieh and said the government was aiming to ‘put an end to the Israeli violations as soon as possible’

BEIRUT: Israel conducted heavy airstrikes in south Lebanon on Thursday, hitting targets north of the Litani River in violation of a US-brokered truce.

Following the strikes in the Nabatieh region, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun held urgent talks with high-level foreign contacts to halt the Israeli violations.

The airstrikes killed one person, reportedly a senior Hezbollah military leader, and led to multiple injuries, sparking panic in schools, universities and among residents.

Aoun followed up on security developments with army chief Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, receiving reports on the areas struck by the Israeli bombardment.

The Ministry of Health said that the initial death toll of the Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Nabatieh was one, with eight injured.

A source familiar with Aoun’s communications told Arab News: “The president’s contacts primarily involved the US and French sides, as they are sponsors of the ceasefire agreement and key members of the committee overseeing its implementation.”

The president reportedly called on the US and France “to pressure Israel to halt its attacks,” but the talks “did not yield any concrete guarantees.”

Israeli jets launched about 19 airstrikes on the area between Kfar Tebnit, Jabal Ali Taher, Nabatieh Al-Fawqa and Kafr Rumman, forming what resembled a ring of fire.

Containing valleys, hills and forests, the area is located about 4 km from the city of Nabatieh, which itself is 56 km from Beirut.

The unprecedented Israeli attack on the region, untouched since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, specifically targeted the Ali Taher area, considered a Hezbollah-controlled security zone.

Hezbollah reportedly lost one of its top military commanders, Abu Hussein Shahrour, who, according to reporters in the region, “was one of the party’s key fighters and played a pivotal role in the 1997 Sajd operation against the Israeli occupation.”

According to Israeli media, a “senior source” in the Israeli army said the military “attacked a significant target in southern Lebanon, consisting of underground infrastructure.”

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the target “was used to manage the fire and defense systems of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”

According to Adraee, the airstrikes “targeted personnel, combat equipment and wells. The site in question was part of a strategic underground project and was put out of service as a result of the strikes.”

He added that “the site and activities there are a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon.”

The Israeli army “will continue to act to eliminate any threat to Israel’s security and will prevent any attempt to rebuild Hezbollah’s capabilities,” Adraee said.

The Israeli army’s Northern Command said it would maintain its “offensive policy” against Hezbollah.

The airstrikes and massive explosions triggered loud bangs that echoed throughout Nabatieh and the south.

Residents near the targeted areas rushed to evacuate their children from schools, and most official departments shut down.

Later, the Israeli army opened fire with machine guns on a civilian vehicle on the Odaisseh-Kafr Kila road in the border area.

The car sustained damage. However, the female driver and her daughter escaped unharmed.

Meanwhile, in the morning, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on several areas in the south, resembling banknote-like papers that carried incendiary phrases against Hezbollah. These included: “Hezbollah’s dollar is haram (forbidden in Islam) and will not benefit you after it destroyed your house and displaced your family.”

Another said: “Do not miscalculate things and do not accept the yellow dollar.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the Israeli strikes on Nabatieh and said the government was aiming to “put an end to the Israeli violations as soon as possible.”

He added: “The government has spared no diplomatic effort to stop these actions and ensure Israel’s withdrawal from the hills it still occupies.”

Salam, accompanied by a ministerial delegation, traveled to Baalbek in the morning on a Lebanese army helicopter and inspected the border plains with Syria.

He has repeatedly called for Lebanon to ramp up its border security.

Salam called for strengthened security measures during a security meeting at Baalbek Serail, highlighting the need to “maintain stability and ensure successful municipal elections with complete transparency and integrity” throughout the governorate.

Meeting with local representatives, the premier announced progress on establishing a cannabis regulatory authority, describing it as a pathway “to transition toward a development-based economy benefiting regional residents.”

Salam was unequivocal that “neither security nor development can function through arbitrary measures.”

He highlighted the urgent need to resolve transportation challenges between Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, while advocating for Baalbek’s restoration as a premier tourist destination in Lebanon.

Salam also visited the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, receiving detailed security briefings from military personnel on site.

“The Masnaa crossing serves as a vital gateway for both the Bekaa and Lebanon as a whole. It must operate according to the highest technical and security standards rather than succumbing to disorder or discretionary practices,” Salam said.

He added that advanced scanning equipment would soon be installed “to facilitate goods movement, enhance transparency and enable properly regulated land exports of Lebanese products.”

Salam said that transforming the border crossing “from a vulnerability into a symbol of state effectiveness” represents a critical first step in broader reforms.

“This is where change begins — with Lebanon fully reclaiming control of its borders and converting them into gateways for legitimacy and order, not channels for chaos and violations.”


Released Palestinian student to help launch immigrant legal aid initiative in Vermont

Updated 08 May 2025
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Released Palestinian student to help launch immigrant legal aid initiative in Vermont

  • Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza at Columbia University, spent 16 days in a state prison
  • “We will not fear anyone because our fight is a fight for love, a fight for democracy, a fight for humanity,” Mahdawi told supporters

VERMONT: A Palestinian student arrested during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship is helping to launch an initiative to help other immigrants facing deportation in Vermont on Thursday, a week after a federal judge freed him from custody.
Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza at Columbia University, spent 16 days in a state prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge ruled that he has raised a “substantial claim” that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.
Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration. Many of them participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians. Mahdawi was among the first to win his freedom after challenging his arrest.
“Justice is inevitable. We will not fear anyone because our fight is a fight for love, a fight for democracy, a fight for humanity,” Mahdawi told supporters outside the courthouse last week.
He will join Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale and community advocates at the Statehouse to announce the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. The group, which also includes lawyers and philanthropists, says the goal is to improve access to legal advice for immigrants and build long-term infrastructure within the justice system as it pertains to immigration law.
Members of Vermont’s congressional delegation have spoken up on Mahdawi’s behalf, as have state politicians. Vermont’s House and Senate passed resolutions condemning the circumstances of his detention and advocating for his release and due process rights.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott has said there is no justification for the manner in which Mahdawi was arrested, at an immigration office in Colchester.
“Law enforcement officers in this country should not operate in the shadows or hide behind masks,” the governor said the next day. “The power of the executive branch of the federal government is immense, but it is not infinite, and it is not absolute.”
Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the US and graduate student who was arrested in March.
His release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month.


UN chief voices ‘grave concern’ after Sudan’s aid hub rocked by 5 days of drone attacks

Updated 08 May 2025
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UN chief voices ‘grave concern’ after Sudan’s aid hub rocked by 5 days of drone attacks

  • Port Sudan is the country’s main entry point for humanitarian aid
  • Country’s brutal civil war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions

NEW YORK CITY: The UN secretary-general has voiced “grave concern” over repeated drone attacks on the eastern Sudanese city of Port Sudan, the country’s main entry point for humanitarian aid.

The city faced a new drone strike on Thursday for the fifth consecutive day amid a fierce confrontation between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces paramilitary.

The attacks have led to an exodus of civilians from the city, which hosts UN offices and aid agencies, and is the seat of power of the army-backed government.

Sudanese army officials have blamed the RSF for the strikes, which have targeted the city’s port, largest operational fuel depot, central power station and airport, among other sites.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the attacks “threaten to increase humanitarian needs and further complicate aid operations in the country,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said on Wednesday.

“The secretary-general is alarmed at the expansion of the conflict into an area that has served as a place of refuge for large numbers of people displaced from the capital, Khartoum, and other areas,” he added.

Sudan’s brutal two-year-long civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million.

The conflict has created “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” the International Rescue Committee has said.

“The secretary-general reiterates that all parties to the conflict must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” Dujarric said.

“They must not direct attacks against civilians and civilian objects; must take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental civilian casualties; and must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.”

Almost all humanitarian aid enters the Northeast African country through Port Sudan.

The Chinese Embassy in Sudan on Thursday called on all Chinese citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.

Guterres is “concerned at the lack of political will of the parties to return to the negotiating table, preferring instead to continue pursuing their military objectives,” Wednesday’s statement said.

“The secretary-general calls on the parties to engage constructively with the mediation support mechanisms already in place to assist the parties to reach a political solution, underscoring the UN’s continued support to help find a way out of this crisis. 

“He renews his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and stresses that dialogue is the only way to achieve the peace that the people of Sudan demand.”


Syria believed to make no purchase in 100,000 T wheat tender, traders say

Updated 08 May 2025
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Syria believed to make no purchase in 100,000 T wheat tender, traders say

  • Traders said Syria could issue a new purchase tender soon
  • Shipment was sought within 45 days from the contract award

HAMBURG: A Syrian state grains agency is believed to have made no purchase in an international tender seeking 100,000 metric tons of milling wheat which closed in April, European traders said on Thursday.
Traders said Syria could issue a new purchase tender soon.
Shipment was sought within 45 days from the contract award.
Syria had bought about 100,000 tons of wheat in its previous tender reported on March 25, which was believed to be the first large purchase tender since the change of power in Syria late last year.
But the donation by Iraq of 220,000 tons of wheat to Syria was expected to be used for Syria’s immediate import requirements, traders said.


Chinese embassy in Sudan urges citizens to evacuate amid security concerns

Updated 08 May 2025
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Chinese embassy in Sudan urges citizens to evacuate amid security concerns

  • The embassy warned of dwindling supplies of water, electricity and fuel

BEIJING: The Chinese embassy in Sudan on Thursday issued a statement urging Chinese citizens in the country to evacuate as soon as possible, citing deteriorating security situation and rising security risks.
The embassy warned of dwindling supplies of water, electricity and fuel, and advised citizens to evacuate via ships to Saudi Arabia or available international flights, or to travel by land to Egypt.