The Iranian regime’s intervention in Syria, stood to the side of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the face of armed opposition was not just speculation, but it was a fact confirmed by Iranian officials themselves, where the representative of Iranian Supreme Leader(Murshed) Ali Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Saeedi, in the last month of November 2015 said if his country had not interfered to support the Damascus regime ” ” Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria would have been lost.
In the context of the battle of Aleppo Russian air strikes were the most important factor at all in the victory of Bashar al-Assad. It had enabled His forces to tighten the siege on the east of Aleppo that had become so devastating and regained full control over what was represented the country’s largest city and economic capital before the war. But on the ground, the Shiite militias played , which came from different countries, even from Afghanistan , an important role in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. One of these militias was the Iraqi militia called movement of Al-Nujaba. In this context, we will shed light on it being ” the Lebanese Hezbollah” in the Iraqi version, and we will tackle also the impact of the control of Bashar al-Assad and his allies on the Aleppo in drawing the Shiite crescent map.
“Nujaba Movement” is the Iraqi Shiite militia owes religious allegiance to the Iranian Supreme Murshed Ali Khamenei and enjoys close relations since its inception with the Lebanese Hezbollah, one of the largest factions of the popular crowd Shiite, and prominent Iraqi militia fighting with Bashar Al- Assad regime in Syria . The name, according to historians of the movement: “a quote from a sermon of Aqila of Bani Hashim , Sayeda Zeinab in the Umayyad caliph Council Yazid ; as described Imam Hussein, peace be upon him and his family and his supporters of Hezbollah Nujaba.”
Founded by Akram al-Kaabi, after bolting from the militia, ” Asaib ahl-Al-Haq (League of the Righteous),” and was affiliated to the Mahdi Army, led by Moqtada al-Sadr, Kaabi was from within the leadership of the “movement of Al-Nujaba” since its inception with Qais al-Khazali and Abd al-Hadi al-Darraji .. Kaabi occupied the post of Deputy Secretary General in charge of jihadist of Asaib ahl-Al-Haq . With the outbreak of the Syrian armed conflict , al- Kaabi tasked to form a faction of fighters in Syria to be under the supervision Alasaib, anf he founded the movement of Al-Nujaba , Brigade Ammar bin Yasir early in 2013, and soon Kaabi, defected from Asaib ahl-Al Haq (the League of the Righteous )and then he has become alone the Secretariat of the Hezbollah movement Al- Nujaba, and moved to Syria to oversee the field and leads the operations himself away from his colleague Qais al-Khazali.
The military restructuring of the movement consists of the following brigades: “brigade Ammar bin Yasir,” “the brigade of Imam Hassan Mujtaba,” “the brigade of Al-Hamad ,” and in addition to the concentration in parts of Iraq, these brigades are fighting in Syria, including Shiites fighters from many Arab countries, distributed on the strategic areas at the forefront of Damascus and Aleppo, which are well-trained in the use of various weapons, including heavy artillery, tanks and rockets.
While observers of the Iraqi and Syrian affairs say that the objectives of the”movement Nujaba” are summed up in the service of Iranian influence and spread it in the countries of the region; the movement describes itself as “one of the factions of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq , which aims to defend the homeland and the holy places, especially in Syria and Iraq, where the sons of the movement drew up the finest photos of sacrifice and steadfastness in the championships and repeated victories against the forces of evil and takfiri terrorism “.
the movement owns an integrated media device for the service of its objectives, includes a television channel as ” Nujaba Satellite Channel ” and its website bears her name, too, and a group of social networking sites, which do not hide that it has obtained the financial, military and technical support from the Iranian regime and believers and Mujahd bodies which took upon themselves to support the resistance and the liberation of Iraq, “as receive military training at the hands of the military from Lebanese Hezbollah experts. It participated in the war against Sunni factions, and was a major part in the famous attack campaigns on the Sunni areas in Iraq , in which the lives of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis had been lost.
Following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution , Nujaba movement was at the forefront of the armed Shiite factions that had moved into Syrian territory to fight with the Syrian government forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah and the forces of an Iranian (including Basij) and other parties, to protect the Syrian regime from falling into the hands of the Syrian opposition fighters, under the pretext of ” protect Shiite holy shrines. ”
But the biggest presence of the movement there was after the short battle in June 2013, as it increased the number of its fighters and moved to carry out military operations in the capital Damascus and its countryside, Aleppo and its countryside north of the country, also participated in the operations to end of siege of the Shiite villages such as Nible and Zahra , and it says that its troops had a”prominent and distinct role in the operations of opening of the Hama / Aleppo .”
On February 18, 2016 , activists dealt across social networking sites video shows members of the movement of Nujaba that they are dragging one of the elements of the Syrian armed opposition forces in the southern countryside of Aleppo, and some of the components of the Movement had uttered sectarian terms against the victim, such as “This is the son of Umayyad.. and the son of Aisha. ” On the last September 7 spokesman for the Iraqi Shiite movement Nujaba Hashem al-Moussawi, said that his group had sent more than a thousand fighters, to the southern parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo to strengthen their positions. Al-Moussawi added that “more than a thousand fighters from the Movement Nujaba had been sent to Aleppo to provide assistance on the ground.” And mentioned that it was sent additional fighters to strengthen the areas seized from the Syrian armed opposition. On the same day , the movement also announced that the commander of Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani inspected sectors of fighters operations in the countryside of Aleppo, Syria, and that he attended the meeting of leaders of the movement in the countryside of Aleppo “and gave them necessary instructions” .this announcement came after days of visit of the Secretary General Akram al-Kaabi of the movement to Iran and his meeting with Iranian military and religious leaders to coordinate on what is happening in the region, especially in Iraq and Syria. And Al- Nujaba movement with Hezbollah occupy Mnaan and Cardboard laboratory areas and suburb of al-Assad and houses 3,000 and military Hamdania Academy in Aleppo.
Nujaba movement like any other Shiite militias was one of the Iranian regime tools to break the Syrian armed opposition in the battle of Aleppo, to draw Shiite crescent map in the Levant, Robert Kaplan says, in his book “Revenge of Geography”, “in the times of unrest the only important thing is maps. When political ground is moving violently from under our feet, the map remains , even if it were not confirmed, the starting point for determining the logic of what is going on. ” And looking at maps of the conflicts today in the Middle East, helping to understand the causes of the role played by the Iranian regime in Syria, and the importance of developments on the ground in Aleppo. And we can not understand these developments in isolation to what has happened and is happening in Iraq and map of Shiite crescent drawn in Tehran . Iranian regime came down with all of its ammunition and strength supporting for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into an arena of fighting in Aleppo.nevertheless supported by the Russian airplanes ,but the decisive factor in the Battle was a mixture of Shitte militias such as Al-Nujaba which was founded and trained by the Iranian regime to engage it in the war arena to engage a traditional military war against the opposition resistance.
The Syrian regime’s / Iran control over Aleppo means that Tehran is now just around the corner from the establishment of a Shiite crescent stretching from the Afghan border to the Mediterranean. This strategic axis is the main goal of the physical state of alert and mobilization carried out by Iran. This plan is carried out by Iran since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and had doubled after the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011.
The researchers in Iranian affairs considered the goal of the Iranian involvement in Syria, is to exercise its authority over a wide area in the Middle East stretches through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, which was an arc of influence that the Arab powers and especially Saudi Arabia warn about it years ago. Hilal Khashan, professor of political studies at the American University in Beirut, said “I get no doubt that this Arc or Shiite crescent will be formed, the Iranians will establish a sphere of influence from Iraq to Lebanon.”
Mohammed Mohsen Oboualnor, a researcher in Iranian affairs, said that “Iran since the Shah era dream of access to the Red and Mediterranean and find an outlet on a major seas.” The report published by the British newspaper ” Obsrver” in October last year, talked about the map. The report pointed out that the road from Iran towards the Mediterranean passes in Baquba, capital of Diyala province (60 miles north of Baghdad), which brings together Sunnis and Shiites, to move to the northwest, where the areas that was restored from al-Baghdadi months before.
And the road is extending to the town of shirqat in Salahudd province, which is dominated by the Iraqi forces on 22 September, to complement the way toward the western edge of the Mosul to a point 50 miles southwest of Sinjar, which represents the next point in the corridor, separated by a Turkmen town of Tal Afar , a stronghold of the organization Daesh. And Sinjar near the road heading to the crossing point Rabiah with Syria, and from there to the towns of Qamishli and Kobani and down to Afrin . Aleppo is the joining point to that corridor. The establishment of a Shiite crescent would give Tehran tremendous political influence in the region; and the access to the Mediterranean means an outlet for the Iranians to help them to challenge the geographical barriers and protect them in the event of the change of the current regional circumstances that have helped Iran to break the geographical and political isolation .
So the political analysts and military experts consider the defeat the armed opposition in Aleppo is an Iranian victory after heavy losses of the Revolutionary Guard, which assisted by militias allied with them, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah forces. And that defeat establishes an extension (of Iranian influence) starting from a government dominated by Shiites in Baghdad, through the alliance of paramilitary Shiite backed by Tehran works in the west area of the attack, backed by Washington in Mosul through to the Syrian coast and then to Beirut, where Hezbollah managed after the instillation of a Christian ally as the president of Lebanon, in reference to President Michel Aoun.
The participation of the Iranian regime did not help for more than five years, initially by providing military advisers and training and arming Shi’ite militias in the formation of only the Syrian conflict, but strengthened his influence across the region. For the first time , it was possible for the Iranian regime to exercise authority over a wide area in the Middle East , stretches through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, an arc of influence that the Sunni Arab powers like Saudi Arabia warns about it years ago.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies