PHILADELPHIA—September 19, 2025—The U.S. State Department this week designated four Iran-backed Shi’a militias as Foreign Terrorist Organizations after years of public advocacy and government outreach by the Middle East Forum (MEF). The administration’s actions reward MEF’s grassroots activism while protecting American troops.
As part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the newly designated groups—Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali—form a network of Iranian proxy militias that have attacked U.S. bases in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria and fired waves of drones and missiles at Israel.
“The designation of these four militias is overdue but welcome,” said Middle East Quarterly editor Jonathan Spyer, who spearheaded efforts to designate the Iraqi militias. “All four have attacked U.S. forces. All are integral to Iran’s power projection and influence-building in neighboring countries and mark the most destabilizing factor in the Middle East,” he added.
Before the Twelve-Day Iran-Israel War, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada’s commander promised to send “hundreds of suicide bombers” at American forces in the region if the U.S. bombed Iran. Following U.S. action against Iranian nuclear targets, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq is suspected of coordinating reprisal attacks on American troops, including a June 14 drone assault on Ain al Asad Airbase in Anbar Province in western Iraq. Following Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, Iran-backed fighters used drones, rockets, missiles, and mortars in 180 attacks that killed three American soldiers. Twenty-five more were injured in a suicide drone strike on a Jordanian military facility in January 2024.
In response, MEF supporters mobilized to send thousands of letters asking Congress to pass Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-FL) Iranian Terror Prevention Act to designate 29 Iraqi militias—including the Islamic Resistance in Iraq factions—as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. MEF assisted Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff ahead of a February 2024 hearing “addressing Iran’s proxy network in the Middle East,” and we secured crucial language in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act ordering an intelligence review of Iran-backed militia groups.
During MEF Advocacy Day in 2023, our closest donors and supporters visited their Congress members on Capitol Hill and pushed for legislation designating Iraq’s jihadist groups as terrorist entities. These legislative efforts were bolstered by sustained pressure on successive administrations, urging State Department and National Security Council officials to hold the Islamic Resistance in Iraq accountable for terrorism aimed at American service members.
“With these designations, Iran’s puppets in Baghdad are no longer free to plot attacks against the United States and its allies without paying a steep price,“ said Gregg Roman, MEF’s executive director. “This is the first step to hunting down these terrorist butchers and exacting a toll for years of unresolved aggression on the part of Iran’s favorite proxies.”
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization, promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects the West from Middle Eastern threats. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
