The United States designates militias in Iraq supported by Iran as a terrorist organization

On Wednesday, the United States once again targeted Iran and targeted its resistance axis by designating four militias based in Iraq as foreign terrorist organizations.

According to the State Department, the identified groups were Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali-all four were previously designated by the Ministry of the Treasury as specially designated global terrorists (SDGT) in 2023.

“Iran-alleged militia groups have conducted attacks on the United States Embassy in Baghdad and bases that welcome us the forces and coalition forces, generally using front names or proxy groups to obscure their involvement,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the press release.

The members of Harakat Al Nujaba, hold a Palestinian flag and other flags during a solidarity demonstration with the Palestinians in Gaza, in Baghdad, Iraq, October 8, 2023. (Reuters / Ahmed Saad)

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According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), the four groups are all supported by Iran and constitute the nucleus of an umbrella organization known as Islamic resistance in Iraq (IRI), which has taken importance after the attack of October 7, 2023 led by Hamas.

The IRI would be responsible for hundreds of attacks in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and was behind the murder of three American soldiers during a drone attack in January 2024 in Jordan.

The American and Israeli national flags burn, as members of Harakat Al Nujaba, meet next to the fire during a solidarity demonstration with the Palestinians in Gaza, Baghdad, Iraq, October 8, 2023. (Reuters / Ahmed Saad)

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“The Trump administration broke the taboo during the first trimester when he proved that he could appoint, shame and punish the militias supported by Iran in Iraq without the country devoting to civil war,” Fox News Digital Behn Taleblu, Iranian expert of the Iranian FDD program. “Now, in the quarter two, the administration increases the establishment of a campaign of designations against agents of influence and terror of Iran in Iraq.”

The four terrorist groups also operate in popular mobilization forces, which is a coalition force of largely Shiite groups which have been trained to counter the Islamic State by the Iraqi government, but which is also strongly influenced by Iran.

The members of the popular mobilization units, the paramilitary forces which are dominated by the Shiite militias supported by Iran, hold an Islamist flag in Tikrit, Iraq, on April 5, 2015. (Mohammed Sawaf / AFP via Getty Images)

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“Tehran relies on these militias to literally have a state within a state in Iraq,” said Ben Taleblu. “Sandwiching These terrorist and other groups supported by Iran between the SDN announcements of the Treasury Department (specially designated special and blocked persons) and the lists of the State Department (foreign terrorist organizations), as the Trump administration previously done it with their boss, the IRGC, in terms of the first approach.”