| Country: | Iraq |
| Details of Formation: | The Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) was established as a splinter group of Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army (UCDP). Sources disagree when the group splintered / was founded as an independent group: Estimates suggest 2004 (UCDP), 2005 (Amnesty International 2017) or 2006 (Stanford Mapping Militant Organizations).The new group AAH emerged under the leadership of Qais al-Khazali (Amnesty International 2017). The group remained anti-government until the US withdrawal; Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki then invited the group to join the political process. From 2011 on, the AAH committed violence on behalf of the Maliki government. |
| Details of Termination: | The group was still active in 2014. |
| Purpose: | The main purpose of the group is to fight the government’s Sunni enemies and political opposition. The government also uses them as riot police in Bagdad. Since 2013, it is involved in the government’s fight against IS. One news source from 2012 suggests that Prime Minister Maliki used the group to divide challengers in his own Shiite coalition and to weaken Mr. Sadr’s political bloc. |
| Organisation: | The AAH’s leader is Qais al Khazali (Amnesty International 2017), who had been a field commander and spokesman for al-Sadr (UCDP). The PGM is linked to General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the al-Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Amensty International 2017). The AAH was also linked to Prime Minister Maliki who gives them orders and to whom they are loyal. Maliki allegedly gave the AAH jurisdiction over the security forces to do what they want. Maliki reportedly provided the AAH with funds and some AAH members were recruited into a special paramilitary force led by Maliki himself. The AAH operates without any legal framework and without official oversight (Amnesty International 2014). AAH plots strategies together with the army and conducts joint operations with the military, where the AAH sends the fighters on the ground while the military provides the artillery and aerial force. |
| Weapons and Training: | The AAH receives weapons from Iran. They have Russian-made Orsis T-5000 snipers, which might have come Russian deliveries to the Iraqi army. The AAH also uses a mix of rocked and improvised rocket-assisted munition (IRAM)-type artillery, especially Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers (Amnesty International 2017). New AAH members are often sent to Iran or to Hezbollah camps in Lebanon to receive a two-week training course. |
| Size: | -- |
| Reason for Membership: | -- |
| Treatment of Civilians: | The AAH committed killings, abductions, torture and forced disappearances, mainly against Sunni men and boys (Amnesty International 2017). The government failed to hold the AAH accountable for the war crimes and human rights abuses, and thereby effectively granted them the permission to commit further violence against Sunnis (Amnesty International 2014). Prime Minister al-Maliki took no or little action as militias like the AAH killed people. |
| Other Information: | The AAH is part of the umbrella PGM Popular Mobilization Force (Amnesty International 2017). The AAH is a Shiite, Khomeinist militant group, whose name translates as League of the Righteous. It is also known as Khazali Network. The PGM is a major Iranian proxy in Iraq. Some of its fighters are incorporated into the army and police. The PGM fights Sunni insurgents and performs police tasks in Baghdad and Anbar province. The group has sent many fighters to Syria and combats the government’s Sunni enemies. |
| References: |
Amnesty International. 2014. “Iraq: Evidence of war crimes by government-backed Shi’a militias.” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/10/iraq-evidence-war-crimes-government-backed-shi-militias/ Amnesty International. 2017. “Iraq: Turning a blind eye. The arming of the popular mobilization units.” AI Index: MDE 14/5386/2017. Uppsala Conflict Data Program. “AAH.” https://www.ucdp.uu.se/#/actor/886 Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD |