SUMMARY
AAH (Asaib Ahl al-Haqq) was formed as a splinter group from the influential Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army in 2004. The al-Mahdi army was formed in 2003 with the stated goal of protecting Shi’a holy places from destruction, but it soon turned to attacking the government and the coalition forces. A few months after its formation, the al-Mahdi Army officially rejected both the interim government and the presence of the coalition forces.
The leader of AAH, Qais al-Khaz’ali, was once a field commander and spokesman for al-Sadr. Following a battle in Najaf 2004, Al-Khaz’ali and his allies decided to change their warfare tactics and thus break away from the al-Mahdi Army. However, the goal of ousting the coalition forces from Iraq remained. In the beginning, the new group did not stress its differences with al-Sadr and his militia. Apart from some videos published on the internet, documenting their attacks, AAH generally kept a low profile. The group claims to have carried out more than 6000 attacks, yet left time and place unspecified.
In mid-2006, AAH and al-Sadr clearly distanced themselves from each other. Al-Sadr accused the AAH leaders of having abandoned the resistance struggle by starting to negotiate with the coalition forces. AAH responded by stating their independence from the al-Mahdi Army and al-Sadr. However, AAH still claims to follow the teachings of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, the father of Muqtada al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999. As for the negotiations, they pointed out that they had only been negotiating with the government, and not the coalition forces, in order to secure the release of prisoners affiliated with the group.
AAH is thought to have received support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force. The type and extent of the support is not clear. However, a senior member of AAH has stated that they have “relations of accord and coordination with Lebanese Hizballah, Hamas, influential parties in the Iranian government and Shi’a figures from the Gulf.”
The leader of AAH, Qais al-Khaz’ali, was arrested in late March 2007, together with a number of other senior AAH members. Although in prison, al-Khaz’ali continued to have a prominent role within the group. He was released in early January 2010, shortly after the release of the British IT-consultant Peter Moore, who had been held hostage by AAH for two and a half years. American, British and Iraqi authorities all denied that a prison exchange deal had been made. The bodies of three of Moore’s four British bodyguards, who were also kidnapped, were handed over by AAH to the Iraqi authorities in 2009. The fourth bodyguard is thought to also have been killed.
AAH has been involved in the one-sided category of UCDP organised violence.
