The Islamic Dawa Party () is an Iraqi Shia Islamist political movement that was formed in 1957 by

seminarians A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clerg ...

Najaf Najaf is the capital city of the Najaf Governorate in central Iraq, about 160 km (99 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam an ...

, Iraq, and later formed branches in Lebanon and Kuwait. The Party backed the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

and also

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

during the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. It supported the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

. Iran played a crucial role in the development of the movement, especially its Lebanese branch which later became

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

. In 2019, the Dawa Party was reportedly suffering from internal divisions and is in danger of losing its "political relevance". The Islamic Dawa Party is led by

Nouri Al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...

History

The Dawa party coalesced in the years around 1960 in Shia holy cities in southern Iraq. At the time, its primary goal was to counterbalance the intellectual hold that Marxism and other secular ideologies had on Iraqi Shia. Seminarian

Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (; 1 March 1935 – 9 April 1980), also known as al-Shahid al-Khamis (), was an Iraqi Islamic scholar, philosopher, and the ideological founder of the Islamic Dawa Party. He was the father-in-law to Muqtada al-Sadr, a ...

quickly emerged as its leading figure and wrote its manifesto, al-Usus, probably in 1960. The group argued for the creation of an Islamic polity and a modern political movement, with a disciplined, cell-based structure inspired by

Leninist Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

organizational ideas, to propagate its beliefs. It defined its mission as to "establish an Islamic government and install a ruling apparatus until favorable conditions arise to enable the nation to give its opinion in a referendum.". Party leaders and scholars have given different dates for the foundation of the movement, with estimates ranging from 1957 through the late 1960s. They also differ on when it adopted its name, when it started to be considered a party, and in which city -

, or

Karbala Karbala is a major city in central Iraq. It is the capital of Karbala Governorate. With an estimated population of 691,100 people in 2024, Karbala is the second largest city in central Iraq, after Baghdad. The city is located about southwest ...

- it was founded. A twin party was also founded in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

by clerics who had studied in Najaf and supported Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr's vision of a resurgent Islam. Hizb Al-Dawa gained strength in the 1970s recruiting from among the Shi'a

ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

and youth. During the 1970s, the government shut down the Shi'a journal ''Risalat al-Islam'' and closed several religious educational institutions. The government passed a law obligating Iraqi students of the

hawza A hawza () or ḥawzah ʿilmīyah () is the collective term (plural hawzat) for a ''madrasa'' (i.e. seminary) where Marja', Shi'a Muslim scholars are educated. The word ''ḥawzah'' is Arabic, and has been adopted into Persian as a loan word. ...

to undertake national military service. The Ba'athists then began specifically targeting Al-Dawa members, arresting and imprisoning them from 1972 onwards. In 1973, someone killed the alleged head of Al-Dawa's Baghdad branch in prison. In 1974, 75 members of the party, were arrested and sentenced to death by the Ba'athist revolutionary court. This included 5 of the party's most preeminent members, who were Shaykh Aref al-Basri, Sayyid Izz al-Din al-Qubanchi, Sayyid Imad al-Din al-Tabatabaei, and the two Fa'izids, Nuri Tumah, and Husayn Jelokhan. They were sentenced to death in December of that year. In 1975, the government canceled the annual procession from Najaf to Karbala, known as marad al-ras. Although subject to repressive measures throughout the 1970s, large-scale opposition to the government by Al-Dawa goes back to the Safar Intifada of February 1977. Despite the government's ban on the celebration of marad al-ras, Al-Dawa organized the procession in 1977. They were subsequently attacked by police. After this period it also interacted with the Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

, the future dictator of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, during his exile in

in Iraq. Widely viewed in the West as a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

organization at the time, the Dawa party was banned in 1980 and its members sentenced to death ''in absentia'' by the

Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council The Revolutionary Command Council () was the ultimate decision-making body in Ba'athist Iraq. Established after the 17 July Revolution, 1968 Iraqi coup, It exercised both executive power, executive and legislative authority in the country, wit ...

Iranian Islamic Revolution and US Embassy Bombing

Dawa supported the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

and in turn received support from the Iranian government. During the

, Iran backed a Dawa insurgency against

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's Ba'athist government in Iraq. In 1979, Dawa moved its headquarters to

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, the capital of Iran. It bombed the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut in December 1981, the first of its international attacks. Dawa party was thought to have been behind the bombing of the US embassy in Kuwait as well as other installations as punishment of Kuwait, America and France's military and financial assistance to Iraq in its war against Iran (see

1983 Kuwait bombings 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

). One of those convicted for the bombing was

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim ( ', 16 November 1954 – 3 January 2020), better known by his ''kunya'' Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (), was an Iraqi paramilitary leader and former chief of staff of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). At th ...

, a member of Iraq's parliament and military commander of the

Popular Mobilization Forces The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF; ), also known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iranian-backed paramilitary umbrella group that operates within Iraq. Although formally and legally part of the Iraqi Armed Forces and reportin ...

. Despite this cooperation, al-Sadr's and Khomeini's visions of an Islamic Republic differed sharply in certain respects. While Khomeini argued the power of the state should rest with the

ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

, Al-Dawa supported the notion of power resting with the

ummah ' (; ) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers ( '). It is a synonym for ' (, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective com ...

, or in other words, the people. This disagreement was one factor that led to the formation of SCIRI as a separate group from Al-Dawa. Al-Dawa claimed to have many

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

members in the 1980s and coordinated with several Sunni Islamist groups at that stage. On 31 March 1980, the Ba'athist regime's Revolutionary Command Council passed a law sentencing to death all past and present members of the Dawa party, its affiliated organizations, and people working for its goals. This was soon followed by a renewed and relentless purge of alleged and actual party members, with estimates varying on the numbers executed due to the secretive nature of the Iraqi regime. In the West, Al-Dawa was widely viewed as a terrorist organization during the Iran–Iraq War, especially since the West tended to be more supportive of Iraq during that conflict. It is thought responsible for a host of assassination attempts in Iraq against the president, prime minister and others, as well as attacks against Western and

targets elsewhere. In 1980 it attempted to assassinate

Tariq Aziz Tariq Aziz (, , 28 April 1936 – 5 June 2015) was an Iraq, Iraqi politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq from 1979 to 2003 and Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iraq), Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1983 ...

, Hussein's longtime loyalist. In 1982 and 1987 it also attempted to assassinate Saddam Hussein. Following Saddam's 2003 overthrow, the former president was ultimately hanged for the Dujail Massacre, the judicial reprisals and torture carried out following a Dawa assassination attempt on himself in 1982.

Dawa versus Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in the '80s

Tensions between Al-Sadr and Dawa came to light when Al-Sadr forbade his students at the seminary (Hawza) from joining the Dawa party. Amongst the retaliatory steps taken, Dawa switched their allegiance to Abu Al-Qassim Al-Khoei another leading scholar in Najaf.

1990s

After the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, the interests of Al-Dawa and the United States became more closely aligned. The efforts of Al-Dawa representatives and other opponents of Saddam Hussein led to the founding of the

Iraqi National Congress The Iraqi National Congress (INC; ) is an Iraqi political party that was led by Ahmed Chalabi who died in 2015. It was formed as an umbrella opposition group of majority Feyli Kurds and shia Arabs, with the aid of the United States' governme ...

, which relied heavily on

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

funding. INC's political platform promised "human rights and rule of law within a constitutional, democratic, and pluralistic Iraq". The Dawa Party itself participated in the congress between 1992 and 1995, withdrawing because of disagreements with Kurdish parties over how Iraq should be governed after Hussein's eventual ouster.

2003 American invasion

Most leaders of Al-Dawa remained in exile in Iran and elsewhere until the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. During this period, some of its factions moved to

SCIRI The Sciri, or Scirians, were a Germanic people. They are believed to have spoken an East Germanic language. Their name probably means "the pure ones". The Sciri were mentioned already in the late 3rd century BC as participants in a raid on the ...

. Al-Dawa Party, took part in the 2002 Iraqi opposition's London conference in support of the invasion.

Recent development

The Iraqi Islamic Dawa Party re-elected

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...

Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of the Republic of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq and the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minist ...

between 2006 and 2014, as its secretary-general in July 2019. According to Harith Hassan of the

Carnegie Middle East Center The Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, previously known as The Carnegie Middle East Center (CMEC) is a think tank and research center dealing with public policy in the Middle East. It was established in Beirut, Lebanon in November 2006 ...

, Islamic Dawa was Iraq's leading party from 2003 to 2018, but during this time "its commitment to building an Islamic state waned and its priorities were shaped increasingly by the challenges of governance and the pursuit of clientelist politics". It has felt compelled to focus on ethnosectarian (Shia) identity, political patronage, and the division of petroleum export spoils to win support, instead of selling its ideology and political programs to voters. As of 2019, it has become "divided by internal factions" and lost its "political relevance".

Ideology

The political ideology of Al-Dawa is heavily influenced by work done by Baqr al-Sadr, who laid out four mandatory principles of governance in his 1975 work, ''Islamic Political System''. These are: # Absolute sovereignty belongs to God. # Islamic injunctions are the basis of legislation. The legislative authority may enact any law not repugnant to Islam. #The people, as vice-regents of Allah, are entrusted with legislative and executive powers. # The jurist holding religious authority represents Islam. By confirming legislative and executive actions, he gives them legality. In his Islamic political system, Sadr sought "a balance" between the two forces of "consultation" (''shura'', the role of "the people") and the oversight role of the ‘ulama, specifically "the jurist holding religious authority represents Islam". He thought that political control should be Upon joining the party, allegiance must be sworn to the party.

Timeline

* 1968–1969: Al-Dawa founded by

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (; 1 March 1935 – 9 April 1980), also known as al-Shahid al-Khamis (), was an Iraqi Islamic scholar, philosopher, and the ideological founder of the Islamic Dawa Party. He was the father-in-law to Muqtada al-Sadr, ...

in response to repression of Shi'i religious academies in Najaf by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime. * 1974: Ba'athist revolutionary court arrests and sentences 75 Al-Dawa members to death. * 1975: Annual pilgrimage from

– called the Marad al-Ras – is cancelled by the Ba'ath government. * 1977 February: The Safar Intifada. Al-Dawa organizes Marad al-Ras, in spite of government ban. Event is attacked by police. * 1979:

. Al-Dawa creates a military wing, later called Shahid al-Sadr. * 1980 30 March: Ba'athist Revolutionary Command Council retroactively bans Al-Dawa; membership was made punishable by death. 96 Al-Dawa members are allegedly executed this month. * 1980 1 April: Al-Dawa unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate

, Foreign Minister at the time. * 1980 9 April: Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Amina Sadr bint al-Huda are arrested and executed. * 1981 Mid-December: Iraqi embassy in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

is leveled by a suicide bomber. Iraqi Al-Dawa party claims credit for the attack, citing Iraq's invasion of Iran. Perhaps the first Shia suicide bombing, the attack was an "oft-noticed precedent" for the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.''Hezbollah: A Short History'' by Augustus Richard Norton, Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 72 * 1982: Al-Dawa assassination attempt on

in Dujail fails. Heavy crack-downs on Al-Dawa by Hussein's regime follow, leading to the Dujail Massacre. Many flee to Iran, where it suffers from competition with SCIRI. * 1983 12 December: In Kuwait, the American and French embassies, Kuwait airport, the main oil refinery in Kuwait, and a residential area for Raytheon employees are bombed. 17 suspects were soon arrested, mostly Al-Dawa members, including Jamal Jafaar Mohammed (currently member of Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition). Jamal Jafaar Mohammed escapes from Kuwait before the trial starts and is sentenced to death ''

in absentia ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...

'' in 1984. * 1987: Al-Dawa attacks Saddam's motorcade but again fails to kill him. * 1996: Attempt made on the life of Saddam's son, Uday. Al-Dawa blamed. * 2003: After the

Invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

Al-Dawa returns to Iraq, basing itself in the city of Nasiriya which the party now runs and controls. * 2005 January: The United Iraqi Alliance, triumphs in the January 2005 Elections; Dawa leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari becomes Prime Minister. * 2005 December: The United Iraqi Alliance, triumphs in the December 2005 Elections. * 2006: Al-Dawa deputy leader

replaces

Ibrahim al-Jaafari Ibrahim Abdul Karim al-Eshaiker (; born 25 March 1947), better known as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 to 2006, following the January 2005 Iraqi parliamenta ...

as Prime Minister.

Transliterations

* Dawa *

Da'wa ' (, , "invitation", also spelt , , , or ) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is () or (). Preachers who engage in dawah are known as da'i. Etymology literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation". Gramma ...

* Daawa (Original Arabic is with

pharyngeal consonant A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper pharyngeal consonants, or "high" pharyngeals, pronounced by retracting the root of the tongue in the mid to upper pharynx ...

—see

Dawah ' (, , "invitation", also spelt , , , or ) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is () or (). Preachers who engage in dawah are known as da'i. Etymology literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation". Gramma ...

Prominent members

''This list includes current as well as former party members''

Iraq

(party founder) * Ezzedine Salim (political theorist, former party leader) * Hashim Al-Mosawy (former party secretary-general) *

(63rd Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member) *

(64th Prime Minister of Iraq, current party leader) *

Haider Al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi (; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication from 2003 to 2004, in the first government afte ...

(65th Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member) *

Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani Muhammad Shayya al-Sudani (born 4 March 1970) is an Iraqi politician who has been the Prime Minister of Iraq since 27 October 2022. Prior to his premiership, he held a number of ministerial positions; namely, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs ...

(68th Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member) *

(former deputy chairman of PMF, former secretary-general of Kataib Hezbollah, former party member) *

Falih Al-Fayyadh Falih Faisal Fahad Al-Fayyadh (; born 27 March 1956) is an Iraqi politician, former head and advisor of the National Security Council, and the current chairman of the Popular Mobilization Commission (PMC). He is also the founder of the Ataa Mov ...

(former member of the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

, current chairman of PMF, former party member) * Khodayyir Abbas (surgeon, former interim Minister of Health, party member) * Kasim Muhammad Taqi al-Sahlani (former senior party member) * Ammar al-Saffar (former Deputy Minister of Health, kidnapped in 2006) * Abdel Falah al-Sudani (former Minister of Education and Minister of Agriculture, party member) * Sami al-Askari (senior adviser, party member) * (thinker, former party member)

Lebanon

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (; 16 November 1935 – 4 July 2010) was a prominent Lebanese- Iraqi Twelver Shia cleric. Born in Najaf, Iraq, Fadlallah studied Islam in Najaf before moving to Lebanon in 1952. In the following de ...

(co-founder and former party leader) * (co-founder) * Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine (co-founder) *

Subhi al-Tufayli Subhi al-Tufayli (; born 1947) is a Lebanese senior Shi'ite cleric and politician who helped found Hezbollah in 1982 and served as its first Secretary-General of Hezbollah, secretary-general from 1989 until 1991. From a comparatively young age, ...

(former party secretary-general) *

Abbas al-Musawi Abbas al-Musawi ( ; ; 26 October 1952 – 16 February 1992) was a Lebanese Shia cleric who served as the second secretary-general of Hezbollah from 1991 until Assassination of Abbas al-Musawi, his assassination by Israel in 1992. Early l ...

(former party secretary-general, co-founder of

) *

Mohammad Yazbek Mohammad Yazbek (born 1950) is a Lebanese people, Lebanese cleric. He is one of the Hezbollah founders and the head of the Sharia or religious council of the organization. Early life and education Yazbek hails from a family based in Bodai, a to ...

(co-founder of

) *

Hassan Nasrallah Hassan Nasrallah (, ; 31 August 196027 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024. Bor ...

(former secretary-general of

) *

Naim Qassem Naim Mohammad Qassem (born February 1953) is a Lebanese Shia cleric and politician who became Hezbollah’s secretary-general on 29 October 2024, the fourth person to hold the position. He participated in the founding of Hezbollah in 1982, and ...

(current secretary-general of

) *

Mohammad Raad Mohammad Raad (; born 22 August 1955) is a Lebanon, Lebanese politician of the Lebanese Shia Muslims, Lebanese Shia Shia Islamism, Islamist political party and militia Hezbollah, who serves as member of parliament representing the Nabatiyeh Dist ...

(politician) * Ragheb Harb (politician)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1957 establishments in Iraq Anti-Zionism in Iraq Anti-Zionist political parties Formerly banned Islamist parties Formerly banned political parties in Iraq Iran–Iraq relations Islamic democratic political parties Islamic political parties in Iraq Organizations of the 1991 Iraqi uprisings Organizations of the Arab Spring Political parties established in 1957 Political parties in Iraq Rebel groups in Iraq Shia Islam in Iraq Shia Islamic political parties Jihadist groups in Iraq Resistance movements Arab militant groups Shia Islamist groups Pro-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war Axis of Resistance