Syrian Opposition Website: Attacks On International Coalition Bases in Syria Carried Out By Iran-Backed Iraqi Militias, Hizbullah Brigades, Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haqq, Sleeper Cells Of Iranian Militias And Other Local Militias, At Order Of IRGC Qods Force Commander Qaani

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On October 30, 2023, the Syrian opposition-affiliated Eye of Euphrates website released an “exclusive” report which it claimed reveals the perpetrators of the attacks launched in late October against bases where U.S. forces and members of the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) are stationed, east of the Euphrates River and in the Syrian Desert in the east of the country. According to the report, the attacks are being carried out by Iran-backed Iraqi militias, the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades, the Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haqq group, “sleeper cells” of the Iran-backed militias in Syria, and other local militias. It also states that the orders to attack are issued by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Esmail Qaani and senior officials from the IRGC in Eastern Syria.[1]

Eye of Euphrates stated that the Iran-backed Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades and the Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haqq militias are behind the attacks on the U.S. garrison at Al-Tanf in southeastern Syria.[2] These attacks are carried out with 120-centimeter-long Iranian-made, fixed-wing suicide drones which are dispatched with small launchers from deep in the Syrian Desert, and not from Iraqi territory. According to the website, both militias mentioned above possess these drones and their members were trained in their operation by senior members of the IRGC Qods force commanded by Qaani, who issues the commands to attack the bases.

The website added that these Iraqi militias (which are members of the Coordination Framework which is part of the Iraqi government) claimed responsibility for these attacks in the name of “the Islamic resistance in Iraq,” but not in their own names, so as to avoid generating a political crisis that would involve Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani.

The rockets fired at the Al-Omar oilfield in Eastern Syria are launched by “sleeper cells” of the Iran-backed militias, Eye of Euphrates asserts, which are commanded by Hashem Al-Sattam Abu Bassam, who runs the IRGC recruitment bureau in the city of Al-Mayadin in Deir Al-Zour Governorate, and is the leader of the Al-Ukaidat Lions militia, most of whose members support the Syrian regime.

The website also contended that Al-Sattam provides rockets to the Iran-backed militia cells in the area east of the Euphrates by means of fishing boats or special boats that the militias rent for that purpose. The Al-Omar oilfield base has been attacked by surface-to-surface missiles from the Al-Mazari’ area south of Al-Mayadin Desert, fired under the supervision of the rocket squad of IRGC Brigade 47.

Rockets launched at the Conoco gas facilities in Eastern Syria are reportedly fired by local militias including the Syrian Hizbullah militia, headed by administrative director Muhammad Amin Husayn Al-Raja, and military director Tareq Yassin Al-Ma’yur, as well as the Sons of Al-Jazeera and Euphrates militia, headed by Nawaf Ragheb Al-Bashir. The majority of the attacks on this base are surface-to-surface rocket attacks perpetrated with Iranian-made or local rockets, which are fired from the outskirts of the villages of Marrat and Mazloum that are controlled by the Syrian regime and the Iranian militias.

Eye of Euphrates stated that all the attacks on the American bases east of the Euphrates are carried out in accordance with direct instructions from Hajj Musawi Al-Musawi, the IRGC commander in Deir Al-Zour Governorate and Hajj Kamil, “the most prominent commander” of the IRGC in Eastern Syria. It further noted that these men coordinate with Hajj ’Askar, who in turn coordinates activities with the operations room in the Sayyidah Zainab area, south of Damascus.

Regarding the involvement of the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades in these attacks, a poster published on October 27, 2023, by the Mido Telegram channel, which supports Iran-backed militias in Iraq, depicts a drone with the flags of Iraq, and Iraq's Hizbullah Brigades painted on its wings as it flies over a U.S. base, from which smoke rises as it is hit with missiles. The poster features the English text, “You will get burned. You will be burned by the fire of resistance,” and the Arabic text: “The men of Hizbullah are in the field.” The channel reissued the poster on October 29, 2023.[3]

Also notable in this context are remarks made in late October by the Abu Ali Al-Askari the security commander of the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades militia, who said, “We are prepared for a war of attrition that will last for years, against the enemy,” as well as remarks made by the militia spokesman Ja'far Al-Husseini who stated, “The resistance in Iraq has begun to deal blows to the [U.S.] bases in Iraq.”[4]