Quds Force using militants in Iraq – Part 1

1. History of using militant forces in al-Anbar Province

- Dispatching militants to the al-Anbar front dates back to mid-January 2014. After Maliki’s classic army and police forces suffered a large number of casualties and lost their spirits for urban warfare in their initial attacks against cities and towns in al-Anbar, the Quds Force began to take action and ordered its associated militias, including Asaeb al-Haq and Katayeb Hezbollah, along with Badr forces, to rush to the support of Maliki’s army and police units in al-Anbar.

Quds Force in Iraq – Part 1

On 25 January 2014 a number of Quds Force advisors, experts in guerrilla and urban warfare, came to Iraq to provide Iraqi forces experience in street fighting, similar to Syria. They worked closely with Ali Gheidan and Fazel Barvari, commander of the “Golden Division” (dubbed the “Filthy Division” by US forces when in Iraq), training and providing their experience gained from Iran and Syria during the past few years. Their first suggestion was launching a force similar to Iran’s state-run Bassij paramilitary units using militant groups, emphasizing that in Syria they launched the civil defense force because the army is a classic force that can only fight foreign wars. However, unconventional wars that follow no rules and have a guerrilla nature demand a response of their own type, adding the army is of no use in such circumstances. They once again emphasized on fighting such wars by launching small guerilla units.