Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

DA’WA, AL • 135Revolutionary Guards attacked Iraqi troops in Basra during thelater stages of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.In Iran, former al Da’wa Party members appeared to form thenucleus of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq(SCIRI), originally named the Supreme Assembly for the IslamicRevolution in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iraqi Shi’ite dissident groupsformed under Iranian auspices in early July 1982 as a governmentin-exileof a future Islamic republic in Iraq. SCIRI was headed byAyatollah Baqir al Hakim, son of Muhsin al Hakim, a native Iraqireligious leader claimed by al Da’wa members as the founder of theirparty. After Ayatollah al Hakim was killed by a car bombing on 29August 2003, allegedly by the al Qa’eda in Iraq group, he was succeededas leader by his brother, Abdul Aziz al Hakim. SCIRI formedcontingents of anti-Saddam Iraqi émigrés to fight alongside Iraniantroops in the Iran-Iraq war, known as the Badr Brigades, and alsocollaborated with antiregime Kurds in the northern war fronts withinIraqi territory.Although SCIRI attempted to unify al Da’wa and other IraqiShi’ite groups under its standard, the main body of the al Da’waParty remained aloof and maintained its own separate organization.The split between SCIRI and al Da’wa was due to SCIRI’s subscribingto Ayatollah Khomeini’s position that the government of an Islamicstate must be led by a qualified Shi’ite jurisprudent of Islamiclaw whereas al Da’wa followed the position of its former leader,Ayatollah Baqir al Sadr, that the Islamic state should be controlled bythe Muslim people at large (the ummah), with the role of the religiousscholars limited to giving advice and guidance. Another splintergroup, the Islamic al Da’wa Party–Iraq Organization, also emergedduring the Iran-Iraq war. SCIRI controlled the Badr Corps (Arabic:Munazzamat al Badr), also known as the Badr Brigades, a militiahaving a strength estimated between 4,000 and 10,000 and which hasbeen accused of death squad activities against Iraqi Sunnis as wellas against Shi’ite Muslims who violate Islamic norms by drinkingalcohol or engaging in illicit sexual behavior.During the 30 January 2005 legislative elections, the al Da’waParty, SCIRI, the Islamic al Da’wa Party, and the followers ofMuqtada al Sadr, the son-in-law of the martyred Ayatollah Baqir alSadr, along with smaller Shi’ite parties and independents, ran togetheras a coalition named the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which received