The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” first appeared as an entity on October 17, 2023, after claiming responsibility for attacking American bases in Iraq and Syria. As you know, the attacks against the American bases in Iraq and Syria took place long before October 2023 and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, operating under the Revolutionary Guards, took responsibility for them under different names. Attacks against American targets by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” formally ceased in February 2024.
According to various reports, the attacks against the American bases stopped due to a direct Iranian directive to the Shia militias, against the background of secret agreements between Iran and the US. Recently, a report was published that confirms these hypotheses, according to which a senior member of the Iraqi Hezbollah, one of the Shia militias in Iraq, stated that they had begun to reconsider the agreement with the Iraqi government to suspend their attacks against the United States.
From the beginning of November 2023, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” began to carry out attacks against Israel as well, which mainly include launching suicide UAVs and cruise missiles against military targets and vital infrastructure throughout Israel.
The “Islamic resistance in Iraq” is in fact a uniform generic public name for those Shiite militias that operate on Iraqi soil, under the auspices of the Revolutionary Guards.
With the delay of attacks against American targets in February 2024, there was a significant increase in the Islamic resistance’s taking responsibility for attacks against targets in Israel: in February 2024, the Islamic resistance announced that it had carried out 3 attacks against Israel, in March – 17 attacks, in April – 24 attacks, and in May 48 attacks against Israel.
According to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq announcement of the attacks, half (51%) of them were against targets in south Israel, 40% in the north, and 7% in central Israel.
Militias from the Islamic resistance in Iraq also took part in the Iranian attack, on April 14, 2024, in which Iran and its affiliates in Iraq and Yemen launched more than 300 projectiles at Israel.
It is important to emphasize that in the vast majority of attacks, there is no actual indication of damage to Israel. This is apart from the attack they carried out on April 1, 2024, against the naval base in Eilat. Thus, in May 2024, out of 48 claims of responsibility, the IDF reported only 9 incidents in which suspicious aerial targets were intercepted that made their way to Israel from the east.
On March 6, 2024, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” announced that it undertakes to achieve two goals: First, the liberation of Iraq from the American occupation, and the second, is support for the Palestinian war. According to them, the attacks against Israel will continue until the war in the Gaza Strip stops. Although most attacks by the Islamic resistance in Iraq fail on their way, they are actually intended to engage the IDF in an additional sector and serve the Iranian narrative of “uniting the arenas” against Israel.
