The fighters say they are Iraqi patriots who came to Kurdish northern Iraq to fight off foreign invaders — but the green telephone at their camp has a sticker identifying it as the property of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They drive the beige Nissan Patrols favored by the Iranian military and speak Farsi, the language of Iran. They are Shiite warriors of the Badr Brigades — the military wing of an Iraqi opposition group based in Iran and supported by that country’s Islamist leadership. And their presence is further complicating an already dangerous ethnic and military mix in Iraq’s volatile north. The group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, took part in a failed uprising against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War. The Badr brigades have recently expanded their military presence in the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, according to officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which rules the region’s eastern half. They say the Iraqi Shiite militia placed three new sparsely populated military encampments in the region. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.