FORMED: May 2013

DISBANDED: Active

FIRST ATTACK: August 21, 2013: KSS is speculated to have been involved in the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta.  Some sources have alleged that the regime used KSS soldiers to surround the area under attack to prevent the escape of any rebel fighters.  The group itself has not commented on these allegations (350-1,429 killed, unknown wounded).[1]

LAST ATTACK: January 2016: KSS fighters clashed with an Iraqi Army unit at a checkpoint in al-Tanoumah near Basra. Two were wounded in the fighting.  The circumstances precipitating the firefight remain unclear. Following the clashes, then Prime Minister Abadi responded by sending in an Iraqi armored brigade (0 killed, 2 wounded).[2]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) is an Iranian-backed, Iraqi Shiite militant group founded in May 2013 that conducts operations in both Iraq and Syria.  In Iraq, the group is a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and fights alongside the Iraqi Government and other Shiite paramilitaries against the Islamic State (IS).  In Syria, KSS is allied with the Assad regime, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hezbollah, and the other pro-Assad, predominantly Shiite militant groups operating against anti-government militias.

GROUP NARRATIVE

Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), or “The Masters of the Martyrs Brigade,” is a Shiite militant organization operating in both Syria and Iraq.[3] The group was founded in May 2013, although the exact circumstances of its formation remain somewhat unclear. Some sources allege that KSS was created by two other Iraqi Shiite paramilitary organizations, Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and the Badr Organization, in order to recruit more Iraqi Shiites to fight in Syria. In contrast, other sources claim that KSS was formed by Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani and Falih Khazali after they broke away from KH.[4]Regardless, KSS remains close allies with both KH and the Badr Organization, as well as with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), from which it receives a large portion of its funding.[5]

KSS first drew international attention in 2013 for its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, in which it has fought alongside the Assad regime and its allies.  When KSS first appeared in Syria in May 2013, its forces were primarily concentrated in the southern suburbs of Damascus.  The group claimed—and continues to claim—that the purpose of its participation in the Syrian Civil War is to protect the Zaynab Shrine, a major Shia religious site located in the southern suburbs of Damascus.[6] However, the group has increasingly expanded its operations in support of the Assad regime to other areas of Damascus as well as into southern Syria.[7] [8]

KSS has also been active in Iraq since 2013.  The group is a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is an umbrella organization comprised of Iraqi Shiite militias that work alongside the Iraqi Army to combat the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.  KSS has been particularly active fighting IS in in several of the central and northern provinces of Iraq, most notably in the Salahadin Province.[9]

In August 2013, KSS came under international scrutiny for its possible involvement in the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta on August 21, 2013.  Posts on KSS’s Facebook page confirm that the group was operating in East Ghouta as late as August 20, leading many observers to speculate that the Assad government used KSS to surround the area targeted in the attack to ensure that no rebel fighters escaped.  Others claim that the group’s presence in the area was unrelated to the attack and that KSS was simply stationed near East Ghouta in order to protect a strategically important, government-controlled rail station located in East Ghouta.  The group itself has not commented on the allegations, although it did announce on August 24 that eight KSS fighters had been killed in Syria in recent days.[10]

In September 2014, KSS fighters began efforts in Syria’s southern front and have been active there since. The group operated in rural areas between Deraa and Damascus. In November 2014, rebel forced advanced towards Damascus and encountered KSS near Sheikh Maskin. By January 2015, the rebel groups had captured territory in that area previously under KSS control.[11]

In mid-October 2014, KSS again made headlines as one of the most outspoken critics of Saudi Arabia’s decision to execute Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on sedition charges. KSS called on the Iraqi Government to cut off diplomatic ties to Saudi Arabia. It also named “anything of Saudi origin,” whether human or material, as a legitimate future target for the group and threatened to “strike and destroy” Saudi Arabia.[12]

In February 2015, KSS participated in the Syrian Government’s southern offensive alongside the forces of the Assad Regime, Hezbollah, and the IRGC.  The offensive aimed to retake the southern governorates of Darnaa and Quneitra.  KSS’s participation in the offensive was chronicled in a documentary titled “The Men of God in Syria,” or Rijal al-allah fi Soorya in Arabic, that aired on Al-Anwar 2, an Iraqi news channel, in spring 2015.[13]

KSS again became the focus of regional attention in January 2016. In early January, KSS fighters clashed with an Iraqi Army unit at a checkpoint in al-Tanoumah near Basra. The cause of the conflict is unclear. At least two people were wounded in the firefight. The incident was widely cited as proof of rising criminality and tribal violence in Iraq’s southern provinces. The event was particularly notable due to the history of positive relations between KSS and the Iraqi Government. KSS has been allied with Iraqi forces and has fought alongside the Iraqi Army against the Islamic State (IS) in central and northern Iraq since 2013.  As a result of the clash, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi deployed an armored brigade of the Iraqi Army to Basra on January 17, 2016.  A number of Iranian backed, Shiite militias in the region, including the KSS, the Badr Organization, Kata’ib al-Imam Ali and the Nujaba Movement, formed the Council of the Islamic Resistance Factions in Basra on January 17 to protest the presence of the armored brigade.  The brigade withdrew on January 19.[14]

In August 2017, there was dispute over whether the U.S.-led coalition carried out an attack on KSS in At Tanf, Syria, near the border with Iraq and Jordan. KSS stated that 36 of its fighters were killed, and 75 were wounded in a U.S.-led attack. However, the U.S.-led coalition, which was targeting ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, denied any attack and stated it was not in the area at that time. Later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.[15]

On July 7, 2018, acting KSS secretary general Abu Ala al Walai announced he would send KSS militants to fight against government forces in Yemen.[16] He released a press statement proclaiming that he was “a soldier standing at the signal of Sayyid Abdelmalik al-Houthi.” By this, Walai meant that he would support Sayyid Abdelmalik al-Houthi’s Ansar Allah rebels, which were fighting the Saudi-supported Yemense government forces.[17]

[1][1] "Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013". The White House, 30 August 2013. Web. 7 May 2016.; “SYRIA: REPORTED CHEMICAL WEAPONS USE" (PDF). U.K. Joint Intelligence Organisation. 29 August 2013. Web. 7 May 2016.; Gilbert, K. “The Rise of Shi’ite Militias and the Post-Arab Spring Sectarian Threat.” International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, October 2013. Web. May 2016.

[2] Martin, Patrick. “Iraq Situation Report: January 12-19, 2016.” Institute for the Study of War, 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 1 May 2016; Nada, Garrett, and Mattisan Rowan. “Part 2: Pro-Iran Militias in Iraq.” Wilson Center, 3 May 2018, www.wilsoncenter.org/article/part-2-pro-iran-militias-iraq.

[3] Smyth, Phillip. “All the Ayatollah’s Men.” Foreign Policy, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.

[4] Smyth, Phillip. “All the Ayatollah’s Men.” Foreign Policy, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.; Smyth, Phillip. “From Karbala to Sayyida Zaynab: Iraqi Fighters in Syria’s Shi’a Militias.” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 27 August 2013. Web. 1 May 2016.; Cigar, Norman. “Iraqi’s Shia Warlords and Their Militias.” Strategic Studies Institute, June 2015. Web. May 2016.

[5] Cigar, Norman. “Iraqi’s Shia Warlords and Their Militias.” Strategic Studies Institute, June 2015. Web. May 2016.; Smyth, Phillip. “All the Ayatollah’s Men.” Foreign Policy, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.

[6] “Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.” Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, date unknown. Web. 2 May 2016.

[7] Gilbert, K. “The Rise of Shi’ite Militias and the Post-Arab Spring Sectarian Threat.” International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, October 2013. Web. May 2016.

[8] Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. “The Return of Iraqi Shi’I Militias to Syria.” Middle East Institute, 16 Mar 2015. Web. 1 May 2016.

[9] Weiss, Caleb. “Iranian-backed militia seen with US tank in Iraq.” The Long War Journal, Threat Matrix, 8 February 2016. Web. 1 May 2016.; Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. “Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada- Threats to Saudi Arabia: Translation and Analysis.” Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016.

[10] Gilbert, K. “The Rise of Shi’ite Militias and the Post-Arab Spring Sectarian Threat.” International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, October 2013. Web. May 2016.

[11] Smyth, Philip. “Iraqi Shiite Foreign Fighters on the Rise Again in Syria.” Iraqi Shiite Foreign Fighters on the Rise Again in Syria - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 29 May 2015, www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/iraqi-shiite-foreign-f….

[12] Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. “Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada- Threats to Saudi Arabia: Translation and Analysis.” Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 1 May 2016; Nada, Garrett, and Mattisan Rowan. “Part 2: Pro-Iran Militias in Iraq.” Wilson Center, 3 May 2018, www.wilsoncenter.org/article/part-2-pro-iran-militias-iraq.

[13] Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. “The Return of Iraqi Shi’I Militias to Syria.” Middle East Institute, 16 Mar 2015. Web. 1 May 2016.

[14] Martin, Patrick. “Iraq Situation Report: January 12-19, 2016.” Institute for the Study of War, 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 1 May 2016.

[15] Reuters. “Coalition Denies Bombing Iraqi Shiite Militia.” Arab News, Arabnews, 8 Aug. 2017, www.arabnews.com/node/1141601/middle-east.

[16] Weiss, Caleb. “Iraqi Shia Militia 'Willing to Send Fighters to Yemen'.” FDD's Long War Journal, FDD's Long War Journal, 9 July 2018, www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/07/iraqi-shia-militia-willing-to-s….

[17] Blanche, Ed. “Iran’s Expansionist Designs Meet US Intrigue.” The Arab Weekly, 22 July 2018, thearabweekly.com/irans-expansionist-designs-meet-us-intrigue.

Disclaimer: These are some selected major attacks in the militant organization's history. It is not a comprehensive listing, but captures some of the most famous attacks or turning points during the campaign.

August 21, 2013: KSS is speculated to have been involved in the Assad Regime’s chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta.  Some sources have alleged that the regime used KSS soldiers to surround the area under attack to prevent the escape of any rebel fighters. The group itself has not commented on these allegations  (350-1,429 killed, unknown wounded).[1]

February 2015: KSS participated in the Syrian Government’s offensive in the southern Syrian provinces, namely in Daraa and Quneitra. KSS fought alongside Assad regime troops, Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other Shiite militias against elements of the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat al-Nusra (63-400 killed, unknown wounded).[2]

January 2016: KSS fighters clashed with an Iraqi Army unit at a checkpoint in al-Tanoumah near Basra. Two were wounded in the fighting.  The circumstances precipitating the firefight remain unclear. Following the clashes, then Prime Minister Abadi responded by sending in an Iraqi armored brigade (0 killed, 2 wounded).[3]

[1] "Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013". The White House, 30 August 2013. Web. 7 May 2016.; “SYRIA: REPORTED CHEMICAL WEAPONS USE" (PDF). U.K. Joint Intelligence Organisation. 29 August 2013. Web. 7 May 2016.; Gilbert, K. “The Rise of Shi’ite Militias and the Post-Arab Spring Sectarian Threat.” International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, October 2013. Web. May 2016.

[2] The Christian Science Monitor. "Syrian rebels' march on Damascus becomes fight for their survival (+video)". The Christian Science Monitor, 11 March 2015. Web. 9 May 2016.; Leith Fadel. "Patience is a virtue; Syrian Army launches an offensive in Al-Quneitra". Al-Masdar News, 9 February 2015. Web. 9 May 2015.; "Iran mourns 7 Afghans killed fighting for Syria's Assad". Middle East Eye, 5 March 2015. Web. 9 May 2016.

[3] Martin, Patrick. “Iraq Situation Report: January 12-19, 2016.” Institute for the Study of War, 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 1 May 2016; Nada, Garrett, and Mattisan Rowan. “Part 2: Pro-Iran Militias in Iraq.” Wilson Center, 3 May 2018, www.wilsoncenter.org/article/part-2-pro-iran-militias-iraq.