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Asaib al Haq (AAH) League of the Righteous
Harakat Hizballah al-Nujaba (Nujaba)

The Nujaba Islamic Resistance Movement (Al-Nujaba Movement) is one of the militias that make up the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, which is supported by Iran. The central nucleus of this movement was formed in Baghdad in 2004, and announced its presence publicly in 2013. It is still present in the Iraqi political scene under this name. Akram Al-Kaabi currently leads this movement, which has military activities in Syria in addition to Iraq.

The movement’s military structure consists of the following brigades: “Ammar bin Yasser Brigade,” “Imam al-Hassan al-Mujtaba Brigade,” and “Al-Hamd Brigade.” In addition to being stationed across Iraq , these brigades fight in Syria and include Shiite fighters from many Arab countries, distributed over strategic areas. At its forefront are Damascus and Aleppo , and it is well trained in the use of various weapons, including heavy artillery, tanks and missiles.

Iranian parliamentarian Ali Asghar Anabastani, in reference to the conflict between Hamas and Israel, told the Iranian Observatory: “It is possible to reopen various fronts in northern Palestine, by Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as the entry of the Nujaba Movement, the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the resistance forces in Yemen, to war.” The "Imam Hussein" Brigade consists of Iraqi Shiites, is integrated into the Fourth Division of the Syrian regular army, and operates mainly in the Damascus area.

The "Asaib al Haq" is a Shiite group that broke away from Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iranian-backed Shia militias – Asaib Al-Haq (AHH), Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), and Muqtada al Sadr’s Promised Day Brigade (PDB) – targeted U.S. interests and retain the capability to do so. The threat of kidnapping, rocket attacks, improvised explosive devices, and small arms fire against official and private U.S. interests remains high and is sometimes subject to the influence of domestic, political, regional, and international developments.

As-Saib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) is an Iraqi paramilitary group founded in 2006. Harakat Hizballah al-Nujaba (Nujaba) is an affiliated faction of AAH and the United States-designated foreign terrorist organization Kata’ib Hizballah that was formed in 2013. AAH and Nujaba are provided training, funding, and arms by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), IRGC-Quds Force, and mentored by Lebanese Hizballah.

‘Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq is an Iraqi Shia militia group that split from Jaish al-Mahdi in 2006. Created by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in cooperation with Lebanese Hizballah, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq began life as a splinter from Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. It was involved in numerous attacks against US forces until their final withdrawal in 2011, when it announced its intention to join the political process. It operated various political offices across the country but also retains an armed capability and is suspected of involvement in various IED [Improvised Explosive Device] attacks and targeted killings against the Sunni community. It has received training from the Lebanese Hizbullah and from the Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Quds Force (IRGC-QF), and effectively represents an Iranian militant proxy within Iraq.

AAH leader, Qais Khazali, pledged allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ayatollah Kazem Hueein Haeri, the group's spiritual leader, is reported to be a Khomeinist scholar of Iraqi origin living in Iran.

"Harakat al-Nujaba" is an Iraqi Shiite militia that owes religious allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and has had close relations since its inception withLebanese Hezbollah . It is considered one of the largest factions of the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces , and the most prominent Iraqi militia fighting with Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

The Al-Nujaba Movement was founded by the Shiite cleric Akram Al-Kaabi, who was a commander in the “Mahdi Army” of the Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr . He then participated with Qais Al-Khazali in establishing the “ Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq ” militia, which formed the “Al-Nujaba Liwaa Movement” in early 2013. Ammar bin Yasser" to fight with the Syrian regime, but the nascent movement at that time soon separated from "Asa'ib" and Akram Al-Kaabi was alone in its leadership.

While observers of Iraqi and Syrian affairs say that the goals of the “Al-Nujaba Movement” are to serve Iranian influence and spread it in the countries of the region; The movement describes itself as "one of the factions of the Islamic resistance in Iraq that aims to defend the homeland and the sanctities, especially in Syria and Iraq, where the members of the movement wrote the most wonderful images of sacrifice and heroism in their steadfastness and repeated victories against the forces of evil and Takfiri terrorism."

The movement has an integrated media apparatus to serve its goals, which includes a television channel called “Al-Nujaba Satellite Channel,” a website that also bears its name, and a group of social networking sites. It does not hide that it obtains financial, military, and technical support from Iran and “the faithful and struggling parties that have taken upon themselves “Support the resistance and liberate Iraq.” It also receives military training at the hands of military experts from the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Nujaba Movement belongs to the Shiite sect in Iraq, but - at the level of authority within this sect - it owes political and religious loyalty to the “Guardian Jurist ,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which has allowed it to have close relations since its inception with the official Iranian institutions, and with Hezbollah, which She considers him her ideal and describes his Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah , as “the shining Arab Mohammedan model of resistance to arrogance.”

AAH conducted numerous attacks against the United States and coalition forces in Iraq between its inception in 2006 and the United States withdrawal in December 2011. This includes the January 20, 2007, attack on the Karbala Provincial Headquarters that resulted in the killing of CPT Brian S. Freeman, 1LT Jacob N. Fritz, SPC Jonathan B. Chism, PFC Shawn P. Falter, and PFC Jonathon M. Millican—four of whom were abducted and later executed.

While Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) remained Iraq’s most dangerous enemy, by 2011 Shi’a extremist groups continue to be a serious threat. Groups such as Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib al-Haq, and the Promised Day Brigade have indicated their intention to increase violence against U.S. forces and they continue in their attempts to do just that.

Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's anti-U.S. rhetoric still inspired followers, but Iraqi security officials said in June 2011 that Mahdi Army splinter groups had too much to lose by returning to sectarian violence. With 39 seats in the 325-member parliament, Mahdi Army veterans may be much less keen to return to arms, even if Sadr callsedon them to do so. "Despite his huge number of supporters, if Moqtada decided to fight now, only a few would fight," said Abu Sadiq, a senior Mahdi Army leader in Sadr City. Additionally, "the danger that Moqtada faces is from his leaders who are competing with each other for posts, wealth and positions," Abu Moqtada, a former Mahdi fighter, said. The biggest splinter group, Asaib al-Haq, was already challenging Sadr’s authority and legitimacy.

By late 2011 the inability/unwillingness of Iraq’s leadership to address Iraq’s basic political divisions was beginning to re-ignite Iraq’s smoldering security problems. Prime Minister Maliki’s dependence on the Sadrists and Iran (who were the keys to his retaining office) has meant that violent Shiite groups such as Asaib Ahl al-Haqq, Khitaib Hizballah and the Promise Day Brigades of Muqtada as-Sadr’s own Jaysh al-Mahdi, had been able to operate with relative impunity.

Among Iraqis, by 2012 there was a growing fear that as Iran becomes further isolated, it would use the relationships and terrorist groups (most prominently Asaib al-Haq (AAH)) it had cultivated in Iraq to drive a wedge deeper into the Sunni-Shia relationship, to embarrass Iraq in the eyes of its nascent western allies, and to scare off foreign investors. Iran's proxies could also attack U.S. activities and further reduce their effectiveness.

In September 2013, the group threatened to attack US interests if the US struck Syria. It claimed via social media sites and through their funeral ceremonies that their units in Syria operate under the name of Liwa' Kafeel Zaynab (Sponsors of Zaynab Brigade). In October 2013, the group moved from recruiting Shi'a volunteers via word of mouth and local recruiters to a phone and social network-based approach. It is unknown how many fighters AHH has contributed. Though, it has been reported that its combatants are well trained and exhibit superior command skills when compared to their Syrian allies.

AAH and Nujaba deployed forces to Syria to fight on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime, including participating in the 2016 siege of Aleppo where the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights alleges pro-government Iraqi militia groups executed dozens of civilians. Tehran’s main regional proxies which believe in, promote, and project Iran’s ‘‘Islamic Revolutionary’’ ideology are the main contributors of Shia fighters through Syria. The proxy groups sending combatants include Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraq’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, the Badr Organization, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and smaller Iranian backed splinters from Iraqi Shia radical leader, Muqtada al-Sadr.

The Popular Mobilization Forces were created in 2014 as an umbrella for militias fighting ISIS. One of the justifications for according official status to the PMF’s 140,000 fighters – including the Badr Organization, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and other powerful militias supported by Iran – was to improve discipline and accountability. It has rather consolidated their power and enabled the constituent militias to detain and assassinate critics with impunity.

In addition to the fact that the Nujaba Movement is considered one of the most important factions forming the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces, which was established by a fatwa from the Shiite authority Ali al-Sistani to confront the expansion of ISIS following its control of the city of Mosul in June 2014, the movement’s largest military role is in Syria.

Following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, the Nujaba Movement was at the forefront of the armed Shiite factions that moved to Syrian territory to fight with the Syrian government forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian forces (including the Basij ) , and other parties, to protect the Syrian regime from falling at the hands of Syrian opposition fighters, under the pretext of “ Protecting the Shiite holy shrines.”

But the movement's largest presence there was after the Battle of Qusayr in June 2013, when it increased the number of its fighters and moved to carry out military operations in the capital, Damascus and its countryside, and Aleppo and its countryside in the north of the country. It also participated in operations to break the siege on Shiite villages such as Nubl and Al-Zahraa, and it says that it was for its forces. “A prominent and distinguished role in the operations to open the Hama /Aleppo road.”

On February 18, 2016, activists circulated on social media a video clip showing members of the Al-Nujaba Movement dragging out a member of the Syrian armed opposition forces in the southern Aleppo countryside. Some members of the movement uttered sectarian statements against the victim, such as, “This is Ibn Umayyah.” ..and Aisha’s son.”

On August 28, 2016, the movement’s Secretary-General, Akram Al-Kaabi, drew attention with his statement from the Iranian capital, Tehran , that the Iraqi “National Mobilization Forces” were merely a “foreign creation and therefore would not succeed,” acknowledging at the same time that his movement had a “close relationship” with the Lebanese Hezbollah. He added that there have been military advisors from Hezbollah in Iraq since the "era of the American occupation" working alongside the Popular Mobilization Forces militia, on the grounds that they are "transferring their experience in their resistance against Israel to Iraq."

On September 7, 2016, Al-Nujaba Movement said through its spokesman, Hashem Al-Moussawi, that it had once again sent more than a thousand fighters to the southern parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo, to strengthen the positions of the regime’s allies in the areas that were seized from the Syrian armed opposition. On the same day, the movement also announced that the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, General Qassem Soleimani , inspected the sectors of its fighters’ operations in the Aleppo countryside in Syria, and that he attended a meeting of the movement’s leaders in the Aleppo countryside “and provided them with the necessary instructions.” This announcement came days after the movement's Secretary-General, Akram Al-Kaabi, visited Iran and met with Iranian military and religious leaders to coordinate what is happening in the region, especially in Iraq and Syria.

In 2015, Human Rights Watch alleged AAH participated in forced evictions, kidnappings, and extrajudicial killings of Sunni and Kurdish civilians in areas liberated from the Islamic State.

Nujaba is led by Akram al-Kabi, who was designated by the Department of the Treasury under Executive Order 13438 for threatening the peace and stability of Iraq. According to the United States Government, Kabi participated in multiple mortar and rocket attacks on the International Zone, or Green Zone, in Baghdad in early 2008. Kabi and other Nujaba commanders have claimed they follow orders from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and declared in March 2016 support for Lebanese Hizballah.

In 2017, a Nujaba spokesman declared that it had formed a unit tasked to “liberate” the Golan Heights from Israeli control and reports indicate the group played a key role in securing a land route between Iran and Lebanon to provide military aid to Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Secretary-General of the Al-Nujaba Movement in Iraq, Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi, confirmed at dawn 09 November 2023, that there is no truce or retreat with the Israeli entity, indicating that whoever thinks that political solutions can work is delusional and should open his eyes well and see “the American-Zionist crime in Gaza.”

Sheikh Al Kaabi said, in a statement received by Al-Alam Channel website: "We are lovers of martyrdom on the path of the free, and as we said and repeat... we will not stop, we will not reconcile, we will not retreat. We were and still are an Iraqi Islamic resistance. Whoever thinks that political solutions can work is delusional. He should open his eyes well and see the American-Zionist crime in Gaza, the killing of children and civilians, besieging them, starving them, and the blatant violation of humanity. There are no political solutions with such an arrogant, criminal devil. Rather, his cure is complete eradication so that our country can enjoy peace and we can get rid of conspiracies and temptations. God is the protector of the believers."