Pro-Government Militias
Documentation for Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas Brigade
Oct. 16, 2012 telegraph.co.uk
Many are fighters hardened from battling against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and include members of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army - a group that supporters considered the military muscle of Iraq's urban Shi'ite Muslims.
"We formed the Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas brigade that includes 500 Iraqi, Syrian and some other nationalities," an Iraqi defector from the Mehdi Army who goes by the name of Abu Hajar told the Reuters news agency by satellite telephone from Syria. "When the fighting erupted in our areas, we carried out some joint military operations side by side with the Syrian army to clean up areas seized by rebels."
Jan. 18, 2013 The Christian Science Monitor
The rousing combat video carries in the corner of the screen a logo of a furled green banner and the name "the Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades," which could refer to a small Iran-backed faction that launched sniper and roadside bomb attacks against US and coalition troops in Iraq between 2005 and 2008. The Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades subsequently became part of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of a handful of Iran-supported factions described by the US as "Special Groups." US officials have accused Iran and Hezbollah of training the Iraqi Special Groups, and Kataeb Hezbollah was designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization in 2009.”
April 20, 2013 The Guardian (London)
April 24, 2013 BBC Monitoring Middle East
June 5, 2013 The Guardian
[…] Sadiq was trying to join a group named Abu Fadl al-Abbas, which over the past 14 months has emerged as one of the most powerful in Syria.
Interviews with members of Abu Fadl al-Abbas suggest that upwards of 10,000 volunteers - all of them Shia Muslims, and many from outside Syria - have joined their ranks in the past year alone. The group's raison d'etre is to be custodian of Shia holy sites, especially Sayyida Zeinab, a golden-domed Damascus landmark, but its role has taken it to most corners of Syria's war. It is now a direct battlefield rival, both in numbers and power, for Jabhat al-Nusra, the jihadist group that takes a prominent role among opposition fighting groups.
Word of Abu Fadl al-Abbas has spread to Baghdad and elsewhere in the Shia diaspora. Many volunteers hail from Iraq's Shia heartland, where the group started some time last year with a fatwa delivered in Najaf by the renowned cleric Abu al-Qasim al-Ta'ai, who gave religious authority to the Shia going to fight in Syria. The effect led to a surge of young Iraqis wanting to wage jihad and a groundswell of support for a sectarian war in a neighbouring state, less than five years after similar bloodletting had ravaged Iraq.
Recruitment centres soon opened; militia leaders who had guided the rampage against the Sunni rebellion from 2004, first against the occupying American army, then against the ancient theocratic foe, were again mobilised. Cadres were called to arms, just as they were in 2006 when al-Qaida in Iraq succeeded - twice - in destroying another holy Shia mosque, the Imam al-Askari shrine in Samarra.
[…] Sadiq found the leaders in Damascus of Abu Fadl al-Abbas and soon learned that recruitment carried with it strict obligations that he had not expected. "The moment you join the brigade, you have to join the Syrian government army," he said. "You have to fight with President Bashar al-Assad before you fight for (the brigade). You have to know that you are protecting Syria, not only the shrine."
His quest wavering in the face of a very different role to the guard duty he had anticipated and relentless pressure from relatives back home, Sadiq gave up on his quest for jihad and returned to Baghdad.
[…] "There is no major fight anywhere, except the far north and east where Abu Fadl al-Abbas isn't deployed," said a Syrian businessman who has helped integrate Shias from outside Syria into the group. "Its influence is growing."
The increased organisation of the group was evident in Baghdad, according to Sadiq. "The first step is to register with one of the Shia Islamic resistance offices, like Righteous League (Asaib al-Haq), Mukhtar Army or Iraqi Hezbullah."
Then comes boot camp in Iran. "You have to enrol on a 45-day training course in Iran to be specialised in using a specific weapon like rocket launchers, Kalashnikov, sniper rifle or RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). After the course, you will be handed over to an Iranian middleman who will take you to Syria."
Murtadha Aqeel, 21, a student from Baghdad, joined the jihadists in Syria at the end of 2011. He registered his name and was told that he had two choices, either to join the fighting near Sayyida Zeinab or in Darayya, south-east of Damascus, home to another Shia shrine, Sukayna, named after a daughter of Imam Hussain.
"Once you get to the capital there is a training centre near the shrine where all volunteers have to do military training. Then they meet with Abu Ajeeb (the commander of Abu Fadl al-Abbas) who asks all the volunteers to be careful and to go home safe," Murthada said.
"All of the volunteers come from abroad. We have everything to facilitate our fight. There are all kinds of weapons, no shortages at all. Three meals and hotels to host the fighters, mobiles and internet."
[…] "Four of my colleagues were killed by snipers; one of them was Iraqi, another was Lebanese and the other two were Iranians. More than 35 others were wounded.
"There is no need for the Syrian army in Sayyida Zeinab. The brigade's fighters are protecting everything from the airport to Sweida (a Druze town near the Golan Heights), including residential areas, hospitals, government buildings, police stations, schools, mosques and hospitals."
June 19, 2013 Reuters
Some Mehdi army fighters took refuge in Syria when Iraqi and U.S. forces crushed their group in 2007. There they formed the Abu al-Fadhl al-Abbas brigade in coordination with the Syrian government and Khamenei's office in Damascus to defend the Sayyida Zeinab Shrine, militant commanders say.
Even experienced Iraqi militants had to join that brigade and fight under the command of Syrian Shabiha loyalists, who are mostly from Assad's own Alawite clan, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. This was a condition for being permitted and equipped by the Syrian Government, Iraqi militant leaders said.
Now the rules of engagement have changed, and splits have emerged among Syrian and Iraqi Shi'ite fighters. The Iraqi Mehdi army, Asaib al-Haq and Kata'ib Hezbollah have begun fighting under the command of the Lebanese Hezbollah, which helped Assad troops to recapture the strategic town of Qusair this month.
Military discipline imposed by leaders of Asaib al-Haq and Kata'ib Hezbollah on the Iraqis has irritated the Shabiha, some Iraqi fighters say, because the Syrians had tried to take advantage of the chaos to profit financially from the fighting.
Those disagreements erupted into a gunbattle near the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab few weeks ago between Asaib, Kata'ib and some Iraqi Mehdi Army fighters on one side and Abu Ajil, the Syrian commander of the Abu al-Fadhl al-Abbas brigade, and his local followers on the other. Two Iraqi fighters and three Syrian Shabiha died in the clash, militants in Baghdad said.
A reconciliation meeting was held under orders of Khamenei's office, but divisions fester and Iraqi combatants have formed a new brigade, refusing to fight under Syrian command.
"I am not taking a salary from the Syrian government, no one has a right to treat me as a mercenary Shabiha," said Abu Sajad, a former Mehdi Armi fighter, and one of the Shi'ite leaders who established the Abu al-Fadhl al-Abbas brigade. "I won't ever fight again by the side of those who killed my brothers."
Aug. 27, 2013 Smyth, Phillip. 2013. “From Karbala to Sayyida Zaynab: Iraqi Fighters in Syria’s Shi`a Militias.” CTC Sentinel 6(8): 28-32. Available at https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/august-2013
Al-Abbas Brigade
The al-Abbas Brigade has served as the primary front group for Iranian-backed combatants and organizations based in Iraq. Numbers for the group range between 500-1,500 fighters.[44] The al-Abbas Brigade was the first prominently mentioned Shi`a militia in Syria and announced its presence to the world via a music video and Facebook posts in the fall/winter of 2012.[45] A Reuters report suggested that the al-Abbas Brigade may have been initially started by former members of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, all Iraqi Shi`a, living in the area of Sayyida Zaynab.[46] It combined a local al-Assad-controlled militia and new Iraqi Shi`a fighters from a number of Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi`a organizations.
The group is also suspected to have connections to Lebanese Hizb Allah and other Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi`a groups, such as Kataib Hizb Allah, due to its name and tactics.[47] In fact, Kataib Hizb Allah once had an armed group named the “al-Abbas Brigade.”[48]
The al-Abbas Brigade’s own imagery also suggests further links between the militia and Iranian revolutionary ideology. Its imagery includes photos of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Hizb Allah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and symbols which draw their inspiration from IRGC and Hizb Allah logos.[49]”
Nov. 7, 2013 Belfast Telegraph Online
Nov. 27, 2013 The New Zealand Herald
There was no word on the clashes from Syrian state media.
The Observatory said the fighting was focused in the village of Marj in the eastern Ghouta area, and pitted rebels from two al-Qaida-linked groups, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, against government troops and its Shiite allies from the Lebanese Hezbollah group and the Iraqi Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas brigade.”
Dec. 10, 2013 BBC Monitoring Middle East
April 9, 2014 The New York Times
But now, after new training as the Abu Fadl al-Abbas brigades, the Iraqis are ''able to do something, not just coming to be killed,'' the coordinator said.”