Badr Organization: Iran’s Oldest Proxy in Iraq

June 2025

Also published in Current Trends in Islamist Ideology
Badr Organization military wing logo
About the Authors
Michael Knights
Michael Knights

Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform, which offers in-depth analysis of developments related to Iran-backed militias.

Crispin Smith
Crispin Smith

Crispin Smith is a Washington DC-based national security attorney and leads an initiative designed to impose non-kinetic costs against human rights abusers and great power competitors. He is a cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform.

Articles & Testimony

An in-depth look at why Congress should follow through on calls to sanction the group, which has been closely tied to Iran-backed terrorism for decades.

The Badr Organization has been described as “Iran’s oldest proxy in Iraq,” reflecting the paramilitary group’s formation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over forty years ago. Despite maintaining close ideological and operational ties to the IRGC, Badr has avoided being sanctioned by the U.S. government in the intervening decades, largely by enfolding itself within Iraq’s democratic political processes and minimizing overt aggression against the United States. Since 2020, various calls have been made by members of Congress to sanction Badr, and Israel has also named the group as a belligerent in the Gaza conflict since 2023. With legislation under consideration again on the issue of designating Badr leadership, this piece will review the recent evolution of the group, with the objective of focusing more acutely on the “shared DNA” between Badr and U.S.-designated terrorist groups...

Read the full article on the Hudson Institute website.

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Topics

Terrorism

Regions & Countries

Iran Iraq