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Jihad IntelProfiles of jihadist groups, with designation status current as of October 6, 2026

Database: Identifiers of Designated Islamic Terrorist Organizations

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq

Designation Status (as of October 6, 2026)

US State Dept FTOListed Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) since January 10, 2020
US Treasury OFAC SDN (SDGT)Listed ASA'IB AHL AL-HAQ
UK ProscribedNot listed official list
EU Terrorist ListsNot listed official list
Canada Listed EntitiesNot listed official list
Australia ListedNot listed official list

Checked against the official lists on October 6, 2026. Listing names are quoted as the list gives them. What changed since 2018

Profile written 2014 The profile below is the original Jihad Intel text and has not been updated. Designation status above is current.

Designated as a "Special Group" by the United States Military

Base of operations: Syria, Iraq

Background: Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi
Background: Guardian

An Iranian proxy militia that originated in 2004 as a split from Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq's name translates as "League of People of Righteousness" and the group is led by Qais al-Khazali. Since Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki's re-election as prime minister in 2010 and the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the group's power has greatly grown, with close ties developed with Maliki's office as Maliki saw Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq as useful to play off against the Sadrists. Thus, the group has acquired a virtually untouchable status in areas like Basra (where it has supplanted the influence of the Mahdi Army) and can be readily seen using elite military equipment and vehicles without objection, even as concerns have been raised about Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq carrying out sectarian cleansing in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala since at least 2013. As an Iranian proxy, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq has had a contingent fighting in Syria, Liwa Kafeel Zainab. It has also been participating in the fighting in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq since the revival of the wider Sunni insurgency at the start of 2014. The group also has political and media wings. The former is known as the Sadiqun Bloc, which won a single seat in Iraq's 2014 parliamentary elections.