Harakat al-Nujaba

Harakat al-Nujaba (HN), often referred to as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (HHN), is an Iraqi Shiite militant organization that operates in both Iraq and Syria. The group was purportedly founded in 2013 as a front group for Katai’b Hezbollah (KH) and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq (AAH) to route fighters to Syria. However, since that time, the group has begun to operate autonomously from KH and AAH, which have both begun sending fighters to Syria under their own banners. HN is active in Syria, fighting alongside the Syrian Government, Hezbollah, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the other predominantly Shiite militias supporting the Assad Regime. The group has also expanded its operations to Iraq, where it is a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), under whose auspices it cooperates with other Iraqi Shiite paramilitaries and the Iraqi Government in the fight against the Islamic State. As of November 2016, HN had 10,000 fighters and was conducting the majority of its operations in Aleppo, Syria and Mosul, Iraq. HN is led by Akram al-Kaabi, a former leader in both AAH and the Mahdi Army. The group has close ties to both Hezbollah and Iran, from whom it receives the majority of its funding and resources.