After Asaib Ahl al-Haq sought a halt to the verbal attacks, Kataib Hezbollah doubled down with a cutting public insult.

As Militia Spotlight detailed on November 26,  Kataib Hezbollah (KH) used the post-November 23 ceasefire in Gaza (mirrored in Iraq and Syria) to chide Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) for failing to join the kinetic “resistance” attacks launched against the U.S. in Iraq and Syria since October 17. In the aftermath of November 21 U.S. strikes that killed around nine KH operatives, Hezbollah Harakat al-Nujaba (HaN) leader Akram al-Kaabi had earlier hinted at disappointment with AAH on November 23, suggesting that they have used “excuses” to not mount kinetic attacks on U.S. forces until then. After over a month of very minimal AAH public commentary against U.S. interests and subsequent muqawama teasing, Jawad al-Talibawi, AAH's security head, finally responded on November 26, criticizing (without naming) the KH Secretary General, Ahmad Mohsen Faraj al-Hamidawi (aka Abu Hussein), for listing muqawama groups – a list from which AAH was deliberately excluded.

KH shoots back at Talibawi, Khazali and AAH

KH responded to Talibawi through one of its spokesman, Jafar al-Husseini, who was sanctioned by name by the U.S. on November 17 for “coordinating with KH fighters planning attacks against U.S. military commanders in Iraq.” He was previously identified as KH's military spokesman and part of its Abu Hussein wing of KH. Jafar al-Husseini first highlighted the apparent veracity of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq attack claims, which he proudly noted were a match for U.S. admissions of attacks on U.S. bases. Then Jafar al-Husseini noted that the number of attacks might have been even higher “if other jihadist factions came along to the battle”, which appears to be a clear criticism of AAH.

Jafar al-Husseini concluded with an extraordinarily snarky put-down: “This is the field, Hamidan.” (Figure 2) The last sentence of the statement is an Iraqi idiom used for challenge and sarcasm. Hamidan is a fictional figure who brags about how tough he is until one day, a bigger man with bigger muscles comes to wrestle him, whereupon Hamidan starts making excuses so that he doesn’t have to fight the bigger man. KH’s challenge is clear: AAH should either put up (attack U.S. forces) or shut up.

Muqawama social media reaction to the squabble

Overall, muqawama social media has been uncharitable towards AAH.  For example, Tura News, with more than 16,000 followers and affiliation with HaN, apologized for giving publicity to Jawad al-Talibawi's comments: “The working team of Tura News: we apologize for publishing the tweet that we received for the military spokesman of one of the resistance factions. Tura News stands on mutual ground from all the honorable resistance factions and is not part of the organized downfall attacks and the attacks that find division. We ask all dear brothers to take stability and rationality as fundamental behavior in handling and not escalate in such important circumstances.” (Figure 7) 

With even greater reach, Sabereen News (365,000 followers in Telegram) and Ahmed Al-Thawaq (166,000 on Telegram but 884,000 on Twitter), two of the most prominent muqawama platforms, sided with KH in this power struggle by only reporting KH's statements and adopting their point of view. Sabereen has had an especially negative lean towards AAH since the government’s short-lived Telegram ban in August 2023, which Sabereen viewed as a selfish move by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, enabled by AAH’s man in Sudani’s office, communications chief Rabee Nader. (Nader was previously a journalist for AAH-run TV channel Al-Ahd TV.)

Findings from the spat

This is hardly the first time KH and AAH have verbally sparred -- this has periodically been the case all through Militia Spotlights coverage of muqawama statements. Historically, KH almost always starts these fights and they are concluded when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGCQF) slaps KH on the wrists. In this case, it will be interesting to see how long other muqawama actors are allowed to shame AAH for its apparent weak performance as an "Axis of Resistance" member since October 7. Even Badr, the most politically and economically-focused of the muqawama actors has taken on more risk by openly threatening the U.S. than AAH has in this crisis. Another finding is that Abu Hussein's paramilitary wing of KH is getting more and more visible and vocal - in this case doubling down on its listing of active muqawama militant groups by even speaking on behalf of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claim brand, somewhat undoing the point of a facade strategy.