Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq ( AAH ; Arabic : عصائب أهل الحق " ‘ Aṣayib Ahl al - Haq " , " League of the Righteous " ) also known as the Khazali Network is a Shi ' a insurgent group in Iraq and is known as the country ' s largest Special Group . Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq is alleged to receive Iranian funding and have links to the Iranian Quds Force . The group has claimed responsibility for over 6 , 000 attacks on American , coalition , and Iraqi forces . The group ' s Syrian branch is called the Haidar al - Karar Brigades and is led by Akram al - Kabi , who is Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq ' s military leader and is stationed in Aleppo . The group ' s strength was estimated at some 3 , 000 fighters in March 2007 . In July 2011 , however , officials estimated there were less than 1 , 000 Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq militiamen left in Iraq . The group is alleged to receive some $ 5 million worth of cash and weapons every month from Iran . In January 2012 , following the American withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011 , Qais al - Khazali declared the United States was defeated and that now the group was prepared to disarm and join the political process . History . Qais al - Khazali split from Muqtada al - Sadr ' s Mahdi Army after Shi ' a uprising in 2004 to create his own Khazali network . When the Mahdi Army signed a cease - fire with the government and the Americans and the fighting stopped , Qais al - Khazali ' s faction continued fighting , during the battle Khazali was already issuing his own orders to militiamen without Muqtada al - Sadr ' s approval . The group ' s leadership which includes Qais Khazali , Abd al - Hadi al - Darraji ( a politician in Muqtada al - Sadr ' s Sadr Movement ) and Akram al - Kabi , however , reconciled with Muqtada al - Sadr in mid - 2005 . In July 2006 Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq was founded and became one of the Special Groups which operated more independently from the rest of the Mahdi Army . It became a completely independent organisation after the Mahdi Army ' s disbanding after the 2008 Shi ' a uprising . In November 2008 when Sadr created a new group to succeeded the Mahdi Army , named the Promised Day Brigade , he asked Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq ( and other Special Groups ) to join , however they declined . The group has claimed responsibility for over 6 , 000 attacks including the October 10 , 2006 attack on Camp Falcon , the assassination of the American military commander in Najaf , the May 6 , 2006 downing of a British Lynx helicopter and the October 3 , 2007 attack on the Polish ambassador . Their most known attack however , is the January 20 , 2007 Karbala provincial headquarters raid where they infiltrated the U . S . Army ' s offices at Karbala , killed one soldier , then abducted and killed four more American soldiers . After the raid , the U . S . military launched a crackdown on the group and the raid ' s mastermind Azhar al - Dulaimi was killed in Baghdad , while much of the group ' s leadership including the brothers Qais and Laith al - Khazali and Lebanese Hezbollah member Ali Musa Daqduq who was Khazali ' s advisor was in charge of their relations with Hezbollah . After these arrests in 2007 , Akram al - Kabi who had been the military commander of the Mahdi Army until May 2007 , led the organisation . In 2008 many of the groups fighters and leaders fled to Iran after the Iraqi Army was allowed to re - take control of Sadr City and the Mahdi Army was disbanded . Here most fighters were re - trained in new tactics . It resulted in a major lull in the group ' s activity from May to July 2008 . In February 2010 the group kidnapped DoD civilian Issa T . Salomi a naturalized American from Iraq . The first high - profile kidnapping of a foreigner in Iraq since the kidnapping of British IT expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards ( which was also done by Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq ) . The group demanded release of all their fighters being imprisoned by the Iraqi authorities and US military in return for his release . In Peter Moore ' s case , his four bodyguards were killed but Moore himself was released when the group ' s leader Qais al - Khazali was released in January 2010 . Prior to Qazali ' s release , security forces had already released over 100 of the group ' s members including Laith al - Khazali . Salomi was released in March 2010 return for the release of 4 of their fighters , being held in Iraqi custody . In total 450 members of the group have been handed over from US to Iraqi custody since the kidnapping of Peter Moore , over 250 of which have been released by the Iraqi authorities . On July 21 , 2010 General Ray Odierno said Iran was supporting three Shiite extremist groups in Iraq that had been attempting to attack US bases . One of the groups was Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq and the other two were the Promised Day Brigade and Ketaib Hezbollah . In December 2010 it was reported that notorious Shi ' a militia commanders such as Abu Deraa and Mustafa al - Sheibani were returning from Iran to work with Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq . Iranian Grand Ayatollah Kazem al - Haeri was identified as the group ' s spiritual leader . On Friday , August 10 , 2012 , Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq militia men stormed a Sunni mosque in Baghdad ' s Al - Amin al - Thaniyah district , converting it into a Shi ' a mosque and banning Sunnis from entering it . In August and September 2012 , Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq started a poster campaign in which they distributed over 20 , 000 posters of Iran ' s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei throughout Iraq . A senior official in Baghdad ' s local government said municipal workers were afraid to take the posters down in fear of retribution by Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq militiamen . Funding . The Organisation is alleged to receive training and weapons from Iran ' s Revolutionary Guards ' Quds Force as well as Iranian - backed Lebanese group Hezbollah . By March 2007 , Iran was providing the network between $ 750 , 000 and $ 3 million in arms and financial support each month . Abu Mustafa al - Sheibani , a former Badr Brigades member who ran an important smuggling network known as the Sheibani Network played a key role in supplying the group . The group was also supplied by a smuggling network headed by Ahmad Sajad al - Gharawi a former Mahdi Army commander , mostly active in Maysan Governorate . Organisational structure . As of 2006 Asa ' ib Ahl al - Haq had at least four major operational branches :