The United States launched retaliatory strikes yesterday, Friday, following an attack by Iranian-backed Iraqi militants last weekend that resulted in the deaths of three American soldiers in Jordan and injuries to 40 others. The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) stated that the attack bears the "traces" of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq.
What are the Hezbollah Brigades?
- The Hezbollah Brigades were established following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and they are one of the elite armed factions in Iraq closely aligned with Iran.
- They are the strongest armed faction in the Islamic resistance in Iraq, forming an umbrella for radical Shiite armed groups that have claimed responsibility for more than 150 attacks on U.S. forces since the onset of the Gaza war.
- After their establishment, the group quickly gained notoriety for deadly attacks against military and diplomatic targets in the first decade of the 21st century, utilizing a mix of sniper attacks, rockets, mortars, and roadside bombs. The group neither confirms nor denies its involvement publicly.
- The U.S. designated them as a terrorist organization in 2009.
- It was led by the Iranian-Iraqi citizen Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis until his death in a U.S. drone strike in 2020 alongside the commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, at Baghdad International Airport.
- The group embraces a transnational Shiite ideology, viewing the borders between Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon as western borders. They consider U.S. forces in Iraq as foreign occupying forces and call for their expulsion by force.
- They fought alongside other Shiite militias against opposition fighters, mostly Sunni, during the Syrian civil war and have continued operating in Syria since then.
- The group is enigmatic, lacking an announced leadership structure, and has thousands of fighters along with a stockpile of drones, rockets, and short-range ballistic missiles, according to Iraqi officials and members of the group.
- The United States has targeted Hezbollah Brigades' sites, bases, and logistical training centers multiple times over the years. On January 24, they struck several targets in the Hezbollah Brigades' stronghold in Jurf al-Sakhar, approximately 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, in response to drone and rocket attacks.
- Several brigades within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) of Iraq, a group of armed factions originally formed to fight ISIS in 2014, have been recognized later as an official security force.
- The fighters receive salaries from the state, and some members of the Hezbollah Brigades, who are classified by the U.S. as terrorists, hold senior positions in the PMF.
- While technically under the command of the Iraqi Prime Minister as part of the PMF, the group often operates outside the chain of command and has challenged and rejected government statements calling for the cessation of attacks on U.S. forces.
- Although they do not publicly confirm or deny links, the group is widely viewed to have formed a political party for the first time in the 2021 elections in Iraq, winning several seats in the parliament.
