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Kata'ib Hezbollah's Syrian Wing: Interview

November 17, 2018 at 10:44 am

Kata'ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) is among the most well-known Iraqi groups backed by Iran. It has participated in the war in Syria in support of the Syrian government. Less widely known is the group's recruitment of Syrians. Today's interviewee is a member of Kata'ib Hezbollah's Syrian wing. He is originally from the Shi'i village of al-Fu'a in Idlib, which, along with Kafariya (another Shi'i village in Idlib), was completely evacuated of its original inhabitants earlier this year. Prior to joining Kata'ib Hezbollah's Syrian wing, he was in the Hezbollah-affiliated Special Force.

This interview was conducted today. Any parenthetical insertions are in square brackets.

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Hezbollah Recruitment in Eastern Deraa?

November 13, 2018  •  Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis

One of the main concerns regarding the Syrian government's campaign to recapture the rebel-held parts of Deraa and Quneitra during the summer of this year was that the campaign would allow for an expansion of the influence of Iran and its Lebanese client Hezbollah in southern Syria, arguably posing a threat to Israel in particular. Ultimately though, it would appear that the Russians assuaged Israeli concerns with pledges that Iranian-backed groups would not participate in the final southern offensive and would be kept away from the border with the Golan Heights.

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The Post-Rebellion South: Interview (III)

November 8, 2018 at 12:58 pm

For prior parts in this series:

(i)- Interview with someone from al-Karak al-Sharqi (east Deraa countryside) involved in V Corps project.
(ii)- Interview with someone from Tasil (west Deraa countryside) involved in V Corps project.

Generally speaking, southern Syria has slipped into media obscurity since the military campaign and reconciliations that saw the Syrian government reclaim the entire region from the rebels. Some reports that have emerged tend to be polemically charged. Here, I have tried to rectify the gap in knowledge by conducting interviews with people still residing there.

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Interview with the Mukhtar of Killi

November 6, 2018 at 10:52 am

Previously on this blog I have interviewed mukhtars of al-Karak al-Sharqi (east Deraa countryside) and Azaz (north Aleppo countryside). Those interviews illustrated two important and contrasting points: namely, how a mukhtar in a rebel-held area (in this case, al-Karak al-Sharqi) could still serve as an important link to the Syrian government and how a mukhtar in another rebel-held area (in this case, Azaz) could illustrate a local administration's direct links with Turkey rather than the Syrian opposition's interim government, whose influence in the Turkish-occupied Euphrates Shield zone of north Aleppo countryside is limited.

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Juhayman al-Otaibi and the Millatu Ibrahim

November 5, 2018  •  aymennjawad.org

Previously I had covered one of the pamphlets of the Saudi Islamic militant Juhayman al-Otaibi, who led an armed takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. That pamphlet discussed matters like obedience to rulers, allegiance pledges and the Caliphate, and thus served as a useful starting point to compare Otaibi's thinking with jihadist ideology today.

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