In a move against what it considers the Axis of Resistance, the U.S. government designated four Iraqi militia groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations on Wednesday.
The , identified the groups as Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali. All four had already been designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) by the Treasury Department in 2023.
Secretary of State stated that these Iran-aligned militias have attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and bases housing U.S. and Coalition forces, often using front organizations to conceal their involvement.
According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), these groups are supported by Iran and are central to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella organization that gained prominence after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel led by Hamas.
The IRI is believed to be responsible for hundreds of attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, including the drone attack in January 2024 in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iranian expert and senior director of the FDD’s Iran program, told Digital that the Trump administration had previously demonstrated its ability to name, shame, and punish Iran-backed militias in Iraq without causing civil war. He added that the current administration is building on this by continuing to designate Iranian agents of influence and terror in Iraq.
These four groups also operate within the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of primarily Shia groups formed by the Iraqi government to fight ISIS, but which is also heavily influenced by Iran.
Ben Taleblu stated that Tehran uses these militias to maintain a state within a state in Iraq. He believes that designating these and other Iran-backed terror groups with both Treasury Department (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) SDN listings and State Department (Foreign Terrorist Organizations) FTO listings, as the Trump administration did with the IRGC, is the correct strategy.