On Wednesday, the United States once again took aim at , targeting its Axis of Resistance by designating four Iraq-based militias as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
As per the , the identified groups included Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali – all four having been previously designated by the Department of Treasury as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) in 2023.
“Iran-aligned militia groups have conducted attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and bases hosting U.S. and Coalition forces, typically using front names or proxy groups to obfuscate their involvement,” Secretary of State stated in the announcement.
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) reports that these four groups are all supported by Iran and constitute the core of an umbrella organization, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which rose to prominence after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The IRI is thought to be accountable for hundreds of attacks across Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, and was implicated in the killing of three U.S. service members during a drone strike in January 2024 in Jordan.
“The Trump administration broke the taboo during term one when it proved it could name, shame, and punish Iran-backed militias in Iraq without the country devolving into civil war,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iranian expert and senior director of the FDD’s Iran program, told Digital. “Now in term two, the administration is upping the ante, continuing a campaign of designations against the agents of influence and terror of Iran in Iraq.”
The four also operate within the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition force consisting largely of Shia groups formed by the Iraqi government to counter ISIS, but which is also strongly influenced by Iran.
“Tehran relies on these militias to literally have a state within a state in Iraq,” Ben Taleblu stated. “Placing these and other Iran-backed terror groups between Treasury Department [Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons] SDN listings and State Department [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] FTO listings, as the Trump administration previously did with their patron, the IRGC, in term one, constitutes the correct strategy.”