THE SHIITE JIHAD IN SYRIA AND ITS REGIONAL EFFECTS

24 n THE SHIITE JIHAD IN SYRIA
ing deniability required that the locations of their casualties go unreported
or be kept deliberately vague. 146
Newer Iraqi Shiite proxies like KSS and HHN not only announced their
presence in Syria but also asserted themselves via large funeral demonstrations
for members in May and June 2013. Indeed, funerals were a main means to
announce a group’s involvement in Syria or to simultaneously announce its
Syria activities and very existence. While reports surfaced that other Iranian
proxy groups had sent fighters to Syria, some of these organizations remained
mum on their involvement until summer 2013. The Badr Organization, following
the deaths of two members in July 2013, admitted its involvement in
Syria and its formation of a special force there.
The second trend consisted of Sadrists, most likely those belonging to
splinter groups. The Sadrists present in Syria were not necessarily direct followers
of Muqtada and often encompassed a group broadly subscribing to
the tenets espoused by his murdered father, Muhammad Sadiq. Sadrists, who
were active in the war with the United States, have been linked to Iran and its
proxies, both during that earlier war and since. Indeed, Sadrist recruits for the
Syrian war were politically mobilized, highly sectarian, with training experience
ranging from basic to more advanced.
Viewed cynically, Iran and its proxies might have been seen to recruit
Sadrists as both cannon fodder and to establish deniability for its efforts to
bolster Assad. Considering Iran’s tensions with Muqtada al-Sadr, fighters
sent to Iran for training and equipment and then led, in part, by the IRGC
and other advisors might also fuel future Sadrist splits, thereby building
influence for Iran.
Whatever their idiosyncratic path, Sadrists have undoubtedly made a significant
contribution to the Syrian Shiite jihad. The first trickle of foreign
Shiite fighters to reach Syria emerged from this strain, and according to
LAFA sources, the “first martyr to fall in Sayyeda Zainab ” was Jaafar Adhab
Farhud, who was killed on May 12, 2012, and buried in Diwaniyah, Iraq. 147
The placard above his tombstone, complete with images of Muqtada al-Sadr
and his father, Muhammad Sadiq, says he was a “casualty of cowardly terrorists
in Syria.” 148
According to an October 2012 report, members of al-Sadr’s senior leadership
were deploying to Syria under the guise of pilgrimages to Sayyeda
Zainab. One such individual affirmed, “When we went to Najaf, they told
us it’s a call for fighting in Syria against the Salafis.” 149 It was around the
same time that direct Iranian involvement in the war, through proxy forces,