OVERVIEW

Harakat al-Nujaba’ (HAN) FLAG

Harakat al-Nujaba’ (HAN)—meaning Movement of the Noble Ones—is an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militant group that seeks to violently oust US and coalition presence from the Middle East. Militant leader Akram al-Ka’bi formed HAN in 2013 when he split from another Iraqi terrorist group, ‘Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq, because he wanted to focus on conducting attacks to compel US forces to withdraw from Iraq.

HAN is one of Iran’s most aggressive proxies and closely follows the direction of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Unlike several other Iraqi Shia militias, HAN has no political arm and focuses only on militant activity. Since the start of the Israel-HAMAS conflict in October 2023, HAN and other Iraqi Shia militant groups—under the banner of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq—have conducted more than 150 attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria. HAN also spent years fighting to support Syria’s Asad regime, but the group withdrew from Syria along with Iranian forces and other Iraqi Shia militias after the regime collapsed.

OPERATING AREA
Iraq; historically operated in Syria

MEMBERS
3,000 to 5,000

TACTICS AND TARGETS
HAN uses armored vehicles, older-model tanks, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), antitank missiles, light arms, midrange machineguns, mortars, vehicle-mounted rocket launchers, and long-range artillery rockets. The group primarily targets US bases and military personnel in Iraq and Syria. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force and Lebanese Hizballah help to fund, train, and equip HAN.

TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated HAN; its leader, al-Ka’bi; and the group’s associated TV station, Qanat al-Nujaba al-Fadhaeyya; as specially designated global terrorists in March 2019.

KEY LEADERS

NOTABLE ATTACKS