Iraqi Hezbollah Calls for Jihadist Operations in Saudi Arabia

The Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq have called for operations to be launched within Saudi Arabia, and urged the Iraqi government to criminalize any Saudi presence in Iraq.

On Sunday, May 24, Abu Ali Al-Askari, a security official for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Brigades, said in a post on his official Twitter account: "You will only have security against the evil of the Al Saloul [Al Saud, or the Saudi state] by moving jihadist operations into Saudi Arabia to kill them.”

Al-Askari pointed to the "ARAMCO strikes" carried out by what he described as "Mujahideen" as proof that the Hezbollah Brigades could move military operations into Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of being involved in the shelling of facilities belonging to the ARAMCO oil company in September 2019. However, Iran stated that the Houthis, also known as the Ansarallah movement, were responsible for the attacks. It is widely known that Iran gives financial backing to the Houthis. 

Iraqi Hezbollah was established in 2003 and is regarded as one of the most important formations within the Popular Mobilization Forces. The group was formed in Iraq by Iran to fight the United States, and was headed by Jamal Jafar Al-Ibrahimi (also known as Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis), who was killed following an US air strike near Baghdad Airport in January 2020.

Iraqi Hezbollah has approximately 7,000 fighters in Iraq and has control of, and deployed in the city of Jurf Al-Sakhr.  The residents of the city have been completely displaced in Babil governorate. It is considered to be one the best equipped forces, possessing a large number of long-range missiles obtained from Iran, as reported previously by IranWire.