Tehran has dozens of militias and armed groups deployed in Arab countries to destabilize the Middle East and stabilize the Iranian influence.
Iran has a major arm under the name of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard, which is responsible for foreign terrorist operations and has a key role in the establishment of foreign support to Iran, which is composed of local militias in several countries in the region.
These militias are based on sectarianism as a focal point for all their moves to mobilize minorities to implement the Iranian project in the region.
The following are the most prominent terrorist wings of Iran in the Middle East:
The Lebanese Hezbollah
Iran established Hezbollah’s militia in Lebanon in 1982, becoming its most prominent military agent in the Middle East. In addition to the militia’s control of the Lebanese decision making by force, the militia has been involved in terrorist acts in Lebanon and many countries.
The party presented themselves as terrorists immediately after its establishment through its involvement in the kidnapping of 96 foreigners in Lebanon in 1982, including 25 Americans known as the 10-year hostage crisis.
The terrorist organization carried out the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, April 1983, killing 63 people at the embassy. In the same year, the party launched coordinated attacks on the US and French embassies in Kuwait along with an oil refinery and a residential district, killing five people.
Hezbollah is directly linked to the 1996 bombing of Saudi Arabia by establishing and supporting the so-called Hizballah-Hejaz, which blew up residential towers, killing 120 people, including 19 Americans.
In 1988, Hezbollah guerrillas hijacked a civilian plane bound for Kuwait to demand the release of those accused of bombing infrastructure in Kuwait.
Hezbollah also participated in the training of militias in other countries. It also played a major role in the Syrian war by deploying its fighters to the Syrian regime, while providing direct support to the Iranian Houthi militias in Yemen.
The Arab League, the United States, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
The European Union, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Australia banned the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
The Hejaz Party
The Hizballah-Hejaz terrorist group was established in Saudi Arabia through the Lebanese Hezbollah, and it expanded from 1987 to 1996.
One of the organization’s most prominent operations was the 1996 bombing of the US Mission compound in Khobar, killing 120 people, including 19 Americans.
The Iraqi Hezbollah
The Iraqi Hezbollah militia was formed after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003. Several Iranian militias, including the Brigades of the Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigade, the Karbala Brigades, the Carpet Corps and the Zaid Bin Ali Brigades, all united under the banner of the Iraqi Hizballah in 2006.
The armed militia was involved in several crimes on Iraqi soil, where it was involved in a sectarian war against other Iraqi components, in order to establish Iranian influence.
League of the Righteous
The militia was founded in 2006 with direct Iranian support and has split from the Mehdi Army militia of religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr. The group has become a major component of the popular mobilization forces that were formed in 2014 on the pretext of confronting a militant organization but committed many sectarian crimes against Iraqis. The militia is also involved with other Iranian operations in the Syrian war.
Popular mobilization forces in Iraq
Founded in 2014 from the Hezbollah Brigades, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Badr Organization, and Martyr al-Sadr’s forces. The crowd then expanded from Shiite volunteers.
The crowd set up a declared goal: to protect Baghdad and the holy shrines from Isis terrorist organization that controlled Mosul, Ramadi, Anbar, and Falluja. However, these forces were involved in massacres against civilians in Sunni-majority cities and quickly emerged with its sectarian link.
Iranian militias in Syria
Iran has more than 50 armed militias in Syria under many denominations with a sectarian dimension. In addition to the main arm Hezbollah, the Syrian war was joined by battalions under the banner of the popular Iraqi popular mobilization forces, most notably the Liwa Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade, the Imam Ali Brigades, the Hezbollah Brigades, the Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades and Harakat al-Abdal, The Fatimid’s “from Afghanistan and the” Zinbion “from Pakistan.
Iranian Houthi militia
The militia was established under the name Ansar Allah Group in 1992 and began armed military activity since 2004 to enter into six wars against the Yemeni army until 2010.
Iran has long used the Houthis as a powerful tool to carry out its project in Yemen, supplying them with weapons so that they could exploit the fragile security situation in 2014 and carry out a coup against the legitimately elected authority to plunge the country into a cycle of violence.
At the request of the Yemeni government, the forces of the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition for Legitimacy Support in April 2015 began to defeat the insurgency after political efforts were exhausted.
Saraya al-Mukhtar – Bahrain
Saraya al-Mukhtar was founded in Bahrain in late 2011, relying on guerrilla tactics, blasts, and bombings against civilian targets and security forces.
Saraya Al-Ashtar – Bahrain
The organization was established in March 2012 and was supported by Iran and Iraqi Shiite groups associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The organization is led by Ahmed Yousef Sarhan, known as Abu Montazer, and Jassim Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Zulfiqar, both Bahraini who escaped, believed to be in Iran.
Many organizations, including the Popular Resistance Brigades, have emerged. These organizations have adopted all terrorist operations carried out in Bahrain.
Rami Dabbas, (Twitter @RealRamiADabbas ) Jordanian Writer, and Political Analyst, to comment on this matter.
Be the first to comment at "Iran’s Terror proxies in the Middle East & the Iranian project"