Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have reportedly established new, covert cells in Iraq to carry out attacks against Gulf states hosting American forces, bypassing established militia networks to avoid detection, according to eight Iraqi officials who spoke to Reuters.
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The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”
Three or four such cells, each composed of approximately ten elite Shia fighters from Iraq, launched at least seven drone attacks from desert areas near the southern cities of Basra and Samawa, targeting installations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates between April 20 and May 17, according to three of the sources.
Some members of these groups come from the organization known as the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” an umbrella grouping of hardline Shia factions with thousands of fighters. However, these new cells operate outside its command structure, reporting directly to the Revolutionary Guards, according to the same sources — including two Iraqi military officials, a senior security official, and five local militia commanders.
A shift in Revolutionary Guards tactics
The formation of these previously undisclosed Iraqi cells reflects a tactical shift by the Revolutionary Guards, aimed at preserving Tehran’s ability to project power in the region at a time when its armed proxies — Hezbollah and Hamas — have been significantly weakened and Iran’s own military and economic capabilities have been curtailed, five militia commanders said.
Iraq, a majority-Shia country, hosts numerous militias, many of which maintain close ties with Tehran. They form a central pillar of Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance,” stretching from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq.
Groups operating under the umbrella of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” have claimed responsibility for dozens of drone and rocket attacks against American targets in the country, provoking deadly retaliatory airstrikes following US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28. Nevertheless, no large-scale mobilization of Iranian proxies within Iraqi borders has taken place.
Many powerful Shia factions in Iraq have signaled since last year that they are prepared to disarm and refocus on domestic politics, in order to avoid escalation with the Donald Trump administration. This development may have pushed the Revolutionary Guards to establish groups under their direct control, according to retired Iraqi Army General Jasim al-Bahadli and two lawmakers from the Shia governing coalition.
Two of these factions — Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Brigades — announced this month that they would begin surrendering their weapons to state authorities, following repeated US warnings to the Iraqi government to disband armed groups operating on its soil.
“The newer groups created by the Guards appear to be smaller, more ideologically hardline, and more tightly controlled, reflecting Iran’s need to conserve resources amid economic pressure,” said al-Bahadli, an expert on Shia armed groups.
Tehran’s “resistance groups” are not part of the US-Iran deal
The presidents of the US and Iran signed a preliminary agreement on Wednesday to end hostilities, with further negotiations ahead on difficult issues such as Tehran’s nuclear program. However, Iranian officials have stated that their support for “resistance groups” is non-negotiable and is not included in the agreement.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry and its UN missions in New York and Geneva did not immediately respond to questions on the matter. The US State Department reiterated that it “expects the Iraqi government to take immediate steps to dismantle all instruments of Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq, including terrorist militias.”
Full disarmament and dissolution of all armed groups in Iraq on the table
At a meeting on Monday, Iraq’s new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and US envoy Tom Barrack discussed plans for the “complete disarmament and dissolution of all armed groups” operating outside state control, as well as measures to ensure that “Iraqi territory will not be used by any party to threaten regional peace,” according to a joint statement.
Iraqi military spokesman Sabah al-Numan declined to comment, while Kuwait’s Information Ministry, Saudi Arabia’s government communications office, and the UAE’s Foreign Ministry also did not respond to requests for comment.
The war in Iran has dealt a serious blow to the world’s most important energy-producing region, disrupting supplies and fueling inflation. Tehran responded to US-Israeli airstrikes by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz — through which approximately one-fifth of global oil and gas trade passes — and launching extensive drone and missile attacks against neighboring Gulf states.
New groups that emerged in Iraq during the conflict, often under unknown names and with minimal public profiles, carried out at least three drone attacks against targets in Kuwait, two in Saudi Arabia, and two in the UAE, according to three Iraqi security officials.
Among the targets were Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, which hosts US forces, as well as a military terminal at the country’s international airport. Attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE were intercepted, though sources could not confirm the precise targets. Reuters was unable to independently verify the information.
Iraqi officials say the Revolutionary Guards turned to new cells to maintain the appearance of resistance, to deflect accountability from core Iranian-backed militias, and to reduce US pressure on Baghdad to disband them.
An early test for Iraq’s new prime minister
Iraqi security forces have limited intelligence on these groups but are working to map their command chains in order to prevent future attacks. The cells include elite fighters with experience in drone operations and communications. Tehran has invested decades and billions of dollars in its network of regional alliances — a network that has been severely weakened since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel has struck hard at Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by American and British airstrikes. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December 2024, severing a critical supply line to Iraqi militias.
As a result, rather than maintaining a broad network of well-funded groups in Iraq, Iran now appears to be relying on “fewer but more radicalized cadres, with an emphasis on loyalty, concealment, and operational effectiveness rather than mass recruitment,” al-Bahadli said.
The new groups represent an early test for Prime Minister al-Zaidi, who took office last month following US pressure on the dominant Shia coalition to block the return of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who maintains close ties with Iran.
Attacks launched from Iraqi soil also threaten to undermine Baghdad’s efforts to rebuild relations with its wealthy Gulf neighbors — ties that had been severed after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 but had begun to recover in recent years.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE summoned Iraqi ambassadors in April to protest the attacks.
Iraqi authorities are investigating whether one of these incidents involved a drone attack on May 17 that sparked a fire at the Barakah nuclear power station in the UAE, according to security officials. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted three drones that entered its airspace from Iraq on the same day — an attack that Iraqi officials attribute to a new group.
Prime Minister al-Zaidi condemned the attacks as criminal acts and pledged a joint investigation with Gulf states into whether Iraqi territory was used. His spokesperson did not respond to questions about the progress of the investigation.
