All Policy Analysis by Hamdi Malik

Diyala is the one area where the CF's main militia politicians are competing, with the upstart Qais al-Khazali trying to challenge his elders Hadi al-Ameri and Faleh al-Fayyad in their tribal home province.

Badr, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and Nouri al-Maliki are testing each other's strength in the south but mostly hanging together in the north.

Tensions between Iraq's "resistance" groups are on the rise, with Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba claiming that its online platforms and street protests are being targeted.

While one leading militia spearheaded online vitriol against a social media ban that affected its affiliates, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah seemed more inclined to compromise.

Formed by Ashab al-Kahf and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, this Persian-named violent protest movement has been used to carry out threats against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

The militia entity has created a new Persian-named protest group and called on mobs to storm the embassy compound.

The March kidnapping has been widely attributed to Kataib Hezbollah, while most militia commentators link the incident to supposed Israeli spying.

Iran's senior Revolutionary Guard operator in Kirkuk and religious-political leader Ammar al-Hakim were recently brought in to mediate between feuding state-paid militias.

Efforts are being made to create new brands for anti-American "resistance" on Iraqi soil, even as politically connected militias try to distance themselves from kinetic attacks on U.S. targets.

The group has been posting more theatrical messages to suggest it is a real armed "resistance" movement, but without any evidence of actual kinetic operations.

The group stopped hinting and actually took credit for the 2017 murder of U.S. soldier Alexander Missildine, who was then supporting Iraqi combat operations to liberate territory from the Islamic State.

By establishing this Iraqi version of an Iranian IRGC conglomerate, militias aim to quickly dominate the country's growing economy.

After falling under the control of “resistance”-linked board members, this key Iraqi media institution began a widespread crackdown on freedom of expression.

In an ungrudging division of labor, senior militia figure Akram Kaabi is being built up by other factions as the main anti-U.S. "resistance" leader in Iraq.

In its latest threats to U.S. aviation, the oldest militia facade group in Iraq made an interesting callback to a deadly 2006 shootdown of a British helicopter.

Top "resistance" groups sought to avoid embarrassing the Sudani government, but at least one propaganda channel gave away Iraqi involvement.

Similar to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Iraqi "resistance" groups have long sought a company with preferential access to lucrative state contracts, and the Sudani government is finally providing them after years of opposition—on the Saudi border no less.

Tactical disagreements among "resistance" leaders underline their competition for prime real estate and local partners near the capital.

Officials appear to be cracking down on freedom of speech and alternative lifestyles opposed by the self-styled militia "resistance."

With probable IRGC-QF acquiescence, a militia facade group struck U.S. targets in Syria to register its defiance against a possible extension of the U.S. presence in Iraq.