WAbu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces, officially named the Qaeda Quwwat Abu Fadl al-Abbas, is a Shiite militia operating in Iraq, formed following the June 2014 ISIL advances. The force is affiliated with Sheikh Aws al-Khafaji, who was previously aligned with Muqtada al-Sadr. The group claims an affinity with the similarly named Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas group fighting in Syrian Civil War on behalf of the Syrian government. QQAFA also appears to have deep links to Kataib al-Imam Ali.
WThe Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, founded after the Iranian Revolution on 22 April 1979 by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Whereas the Iranian Army defends Iranian borders and maintains internal order, according to the Iranian constitution, the Revolutionary Guard (pasdaran) is intended to protect the country's Islamic republic political system. The Revolutionary Guards base their role in protecting the Islamic system as well as preventing foreign interference and coups by the military or "deviant movements".
WThe Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, also called the Naqshbandi Army, is one of a number of underground Ba'athist and Sufi militant insurgency groups in Iraq. Media frequently refers to the group by the initials JRTN, a romanization of its Arabic name. Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation, technically the name of the umbrella organisation to which JRTN belongs, is also often used to refer to JRTN specifically.
WAsa'ib Ahl al-Haq, also known as the Khazali Network, is an Iraqi Shi'a political party and paramilitary group active in the Iraqi insurgency and Syrian Civil War. During the Iraq War it was known as Iraq's largest "Special Group", and is now part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of Shi’ite militias that are close to Iran.
WThe Ezidxane Asayish, are the police force in the regions controlled by the PKK-affiliated Sinjar Resistance Units. The force is a Yazidi organization which aims to protect the rights of this minority. It has a training post in Sinjar, where the policemen are trained by the PKK. The force also gets officially financial aid from the Iraqi Government.
WThe Babylon Movement is an Chaldean Catholic political party situated in Iraq. Founded in 2014, it is the political wing of the Babylon Brigade, a nominally Christian militia that was formed as part of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces. Rayan al-Kildani, a Chaldean Catholic Assyrian with close ties to the Badr Organization, heads both the party and militia. On July 18, 2019, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Rayan based on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
WThe Badr Organization, previously known as the Badr Brigades or Badr Corps, is an Iraqi Shia Islamist political party and military organization headed by Hadi Al-Amiri. The Badr Brigade was the Iran-officered military wing of the Iran-based Shia Islamic party, Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), formed in 1982. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq most of Badr's fighters have entered the new Iraqi army and police force. Politically, Badr Brigade and SCIRI were considered to be one party since 2003, but have now unofficially separated with the Badr Organization now an official Iraqi political party. Badr Brigade forces, and their Iranian commanders, have come to prominence in 2014 fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq. It is a part of the Popular Mobilization Forces.
WThe Dwekh Nawsha is a Christian military organization created in June 2014 in order to defend Iraq's Assyrian population from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and possibly retake their lands currently controlled by ISIL. The militia defends the Christian cities in the Nineveh province of the historical Assyria region.
WThe Protection Force of Êzîdxan or HPÊ, also translated as Ezidkhan Defense Units, Ezidkhan Protection Force, Protection Force of Ezidkhan, Êzîdxan Protection Force or Êzîdxan Defense Units, is a Yazidi militia founded by Haydar Shesho in the summer of 2014 in response to the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL. It is bigger than the other main Yazidi militia, the Sinjar Resistance Units. However, it is less active and armed than the Sinjar Resistance Units which has been fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since 2014.
WThe Êzîdxan Women's Units is a Yazidi all-women militia formed in Iraq in 2015 to protect the Yazidi community in the wake of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Islamist groups that view Yazidis as pagan infidels.
WThe General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries abbreviated as GMCIR or MCIR, is a Ba'athist militant group active in Iraq headed by Saddam Hussein-era military and political leaders. It has been described by Al Jazeera as "one of the main groups" in the Iraqi insurgency.
WHarakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba is an Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary group that is especially active in Syria. The group is considered an Iranian proxy. It openly receives training, arms, and military advice from Iran. It is part of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a group of Shi’ite militias that are close to Iran.
WHezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. Since the death of Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, the group has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. Either the entire organization or just its military wing has been designated a terrorist organization by at least 21 countries, by the European Union and since 2017 by most member states of the Arab League, with the exception of Iraq and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is the most powerful political party. Hezbollah maintains that it is a legitimate resistance movement fighting for the liberation of Lebanese territory.
WThe Iraqi Turkmen Front is a political movement founded in 1995 which seeks to represent the Iraqi Turkmen people. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ITF has contested control of Kirkuk and other areas of northern Iraq, claiming that Kirkuk belongs to the Turkmen people.
WJaysh al-Mu'ammal, also known as Liwa al-Mu'ammal or as the Popular Mobilization Forces' 99th Brigade, is a Shia Islamist Iraqi private militia that is led by Sa'ad Sawar and has fought in the Syrian Civil War and Iraqi Civil War. Founded as splinter faction of the Sadrist Movement, Jaysh al-Mu'ammal is supported by Iran and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
WKata'ib al-Imam Ali, also known as the Imam Ali Battalions, are the armed wing of the Islamic Movement of Iraq and serve as part of the umbrella organization "Popular Mobilization Forces", Kata'ib al-Imam Ali is prominently involved in the Iraqi Civil War, fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
WKata'ib Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades is an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces that is supported by Iran. It has been active in the Iraqi Civil War and the Syrian Civil War. During the Iraq War, the group fought against coalition occupation forces. The group was commanded by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis until he was killed by a US airstrike in Baghdad on 3 January 2020. After the death of Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, he was replaced by Abdul Aziz al-Muhammadawi, as the new leader of the Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU).
WThe Sayyid of Martyrs Battalions, or Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) is an Iraqi Shia militia formed in 2013. Its stated mission is to protect "(Shia) shrines across the globe", preserve "Iraqi unity" and to "put an end to the sectarian conflict".
WKurdistan Freedom Party is a Kurdish nationalist and separatist militant group of Kurds in Iran, based in northern Iraq.
WThe Conquering Lion of God Forces of Iraq and the Levant, more commonly known by its original name or simply LAAG, is a Shia Muslim militant group operating throughout Syria and Iraq. It is named after the title of Imam Ali.
WThe Mukhtar Army is a Shi'a Iraqi militia group formed in February 2013 by Wathiq al-Battat, a former senior official in the Hezbollah Brigades. Al-Battat pledged his loyalty to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Al-Battat was arrested briefly on 2 January 2014 but was released despite still being a fugitive. He was apparently "accidentally assassinated" at point-blank range on 20 December 2014 at a fake police checkpoint in eastern Iraq by an unknown party.
WThe Nineveh Plain Forces or NPF is a military organization that was formed on 6 January 2015 by indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq, in cooperation with Peshmerga, to defend against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Nineveh plains are a region at the heart of the Assyrian homeland. The militia is affiliated with the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party and the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (HBA), the latter being part of the secular Dawronoye movement. It participated in the Battle of Mosul (2016–17).
WThe Nineveh Plain Protection Units or NPU is an Assyrian military organization that was formed in late 2014, largely but not exclusively by Assyrians in Iraq to defend themselves against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Nineveh plains is a region where Assyrians in Iraq have traditionally been concentrated.
WThe Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish nationalist political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy and peace for the Kurdish people of Kurdistan and Iraq. The PUK is currently under the leadership of co-presidents Lahur Talabany and Bafel Talabani. The PUK was founded in 1975 by Jalal Talabani, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Fuad Masum, Adel Murad, Ali Askari and Abdul Razaq Feyli.
WThe Peace Companies, frequently mistranslated as Peace Brigades in US media, are an Iraqi armed group linked to Iraq's Shia community. They are a 2014 revival of the Mahdi Army that was created by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in 2008.
WThe People's Defence Forces is the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). During the 7th Congress of the PKK in January 2000, the HPG replaced the former military wing of the PKK, the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan. The replacement was intended to demonstrate the search for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, after the capture of Abdullah Öcalan in 1999. The HPG played an active in the peace negotiations between the Turkish Government and the PKK in 2013, as it hosted a delegation consisting of several politicians from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and members of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) and agreed to release soldiers of the Turkish army as well as a Turkish politician, who they held captive. In 2014, the HPG was involved in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Sinjar.
WThe Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as the People's Mobilization Committee (PMC) and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of some 40 militias that are mostly Shia Muslim groups, but also include Sunni Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi groups. The popular mobilization units as a group was formed in 2014 and have fought in nearly every major battle against ISIL. It has been called the new Iraqi Republican Guard after it was fully reorganized in early 2018 by its then-Commander in Chief Haider al-Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq from 2014 to 2018, who issued "regulations to adapt the situation of the Popular Mobilization fighters". Some of its component militias are considered terrorist groups by some states, while others have been accused of sectarian violence.
WThe Promised Day Brigade, originally called the Muqawimun was a Shi'a organization and was an insurgent group operating in Iraq during the war. In 2010, it was one of the largest and most powerful of what the US military call "Special Groups" in Iraq. The group was created as successor to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which was Iraq's largest Shi'a militia until its disbanding in 2008, he also called on other Special Groups to join the brigade. Sadr had earlier already talked about the creation of a smaller guerrilla unit which would continue the Mahdi Army's armed activities but for the first time gave the organisation a name in November 2008 when he declared the creation of the Promised Day Brigade. Its activities have particularly increased since May 2009. The group's name is in reference to an alternate term for the Islamic Day of Judgment. The group is alleged to receive Iranian support. A crackdown against the group, in the end 2009, led to the arrest of 18 of its members including several commanders. On November 29, 2009, the group's Basra leader was arrested in al-Amarah.
WThe Kurdish National Council is a Syrian Kurdish political party. While the KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) during the early years of the Syrian civil war and a strong supporter basis among some Syrian Kurdish refugees, the overwhelming popular support the PYD enjoys has eroded support for the KNC in Syrian Kurdistan.
WThe Shabak Militia is an armed group that formed in 2014, with around 1,500 militiamen, to regain control of the Nineveh region from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Based on photographs of the group, Quwwat Sahl Ninawa was formed with the assistance of the Badr Organization. Further goals, beyond regaining control of the region, were to protect against and oppose ISIS. The Iraq Parliament Representative of the Shabak Community, Salim Juma, obtained a verbal approval to form this militia for the purposes stated. Juma informed news sources of this move in September 2014, the group officially formed as the Quwat Sahl Nīnawā (QSN) on November 23, 2014. Videos later released by the group, however, appear to only show 500 fighters at most, though accurate estimates can not be drawn from said videos.
WThe Sinjar Alliance, full name as Ezidkhan Command for Liberating Sinjar, is a joint command of two Yazidi militias, the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), and the Êzîdxan Women's Units (YJÊ). Both militias are supported by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The alliance was originally created in the end of October 2015, as a response to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) attacks on Sinjar City in August 2014, and was aimed to establish Democratic Confederalism and a Yazidi autonomous region within the Kurdistan Region.
WThe Sinjar Resistance Units is a Yazidi militia formed in Iraq in 2007 to protect Yazidis in Iraq in the wake of attacks by Muslim insurgents. It is the second largest Yazidi militia, after the Êzîdxan Protection Force (HPÊ). However, it is much more active than the HPÊ in fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
WThe Turkmen Brigades are Iraqi Turkmen militias formed as part of the Popular Mobilization Forces in 2014.