In response to the killing of 3 US soldiers at the Tower 22 base in Jordan, American forces attacked 85 targets on February 02 in the area between Al Qaim, Al Bukamal and Deir ez Zur on the Iraq-Syria border. The main militia operating in this area is Liwa Fatemiyoun. Ali Hosseini, one of its commanders, was killed in an attack and it’s possible that he was the militia commander or the regional commander. As of 2017, Quds Force officers command Fatemiyoun directly.
Fatemiyoun (also called “Hezbollah Afghanistan”) was established in its current configuration in May 2013 by Qassem Soleimani. They began operating as a fighting force in Syria in 2014 and there are currently thousands of operatives in Syria. Most of its operatives are Shiites of Afghan descent from the Hazaras, an ethnic group spread across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
