Iran has shifted how it coordinates some Iran-backed Iraqi militia operations, giving its field commanders more latitude to direct activity without seeking approval from Tehran, according to AP interviews with three militia members and two other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The move reflects lessons drawn from wartime conditions and a more decentralized approach in which some groups can act based on their “field assessments,” the officials said.
The report described Iran-backed militias as deeply integrated into Iraq’s security apparatus and funded through the Iraqi state budget, a structure that the United States and other governments have criticized as Baghdad’s failure to rein in groups responsible for attacks on U.S. interests. The officials said the most hard-line factions are now operating using Iranian advisers and a decentralized command system.
A militia official, speaking without authorization to brief reporters, said the change means “The various forces have been granted the authority to operate according to their own field assessments without referring back to a central command,” according to AP. Another militia official said, amid U.S. strikes during the recent phase of the conflict, “None of the first-line leaders have been killed,” while officials described U.S. targeting that focused on mid-level commanders and advisory elements.
AP reported that U.S. and militia dynamics have been shaped by a broader confrontation between Washington and the groups, including escalation of attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq ahead of a tenuous ceasefire deal reached in April. Even if the ceasefire holds, AP reported, U.S. efforts are expected to increase—militarily and politically—particularly as militia groups are allowed more independent operating space, officials and experts said.
On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on seven commanders and senior members of four hard-line, Iran-backed militia groups, AP reported. Michael Knights, head of research for Horizon Engage and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in an interview that “The U.S. is still going to feel it has the freedom of action to hit Iraqi militias,” adding that Washington may use that freedom to “guide a less militia-dominated government formation.”
AP also reported details of how the shift in coordination surfaced earlier in the war. Days into the conflict sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, an Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq’s Kurdish region and delivered what an AP described as a blunt message to Kurdish authorities, according to a senior Iraqi Kurdish government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the message was that if militia attacks escalated near U.S. military bases, commercial interests and diplomatic missions, Kurdish authorities should not come to Tehran with complaints because “there was little they could do about it.”
The official said Kurdish leaders had previously called Iranian officials after attacks to ask why they were targeted, but that this time the delegation sought to “preempt that” by telling Kurdish officials that “We can’t help you with the groups in the south right now.” The official said the shift reflected lessons from a 12-day war in June; the militia officials corroborated the account, saying that in that earlier war operations had been tightly centralized but that autonomy was granted afterward in the field.
AP reported that while a Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba spokesperson said there was “coordination” with Iran in launching attacks, Mahdi al-Kaabi said, “Since we are allies of the Islamic Republic, we have coordination with our brothers in the Islamic Republic,” according to AP. Knights also said that in the recent war, key Iraqi militia leaders appeared to step back from the latest phase and did not appear to be directly involved in operations, while AP reported that U.S. strikes largely killed mid-level commanders, according to militia officials.
Alongside the battlefield and advisory changes, the report said pressure on Iraq is intensifying inside the political system. AP described a paradox at the heart of government efforts to rein in the militias: groups the government says it cannot control are tied to political parties that helped bring the current government to power. Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is serving as caretaker premier amid prolonged political deadlock, and the report said the Coordination Framework helped install him in 2022.
The report said militia forces carrying out attacks on U.S. targets are not “rogue actors,” but instead are part of the state’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which were created after the fall of Mosul in 2014 to formalize volunteer units that were critical to defeating the Islamic State. Critics, AP said, argue that the PMF has evolved into a powerful force that can surpass the Iraqi army, with fighters receiving state salaries and access to government resources such as weapons and intelligence—leaving some state-funded groups aligned with Iranian priorities even when doing so undermines Iraq’s national interests.
AP reported that al-Sudani’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the decentralized control of militia groups. The report said the U.S. is focused on curbing militia power in Iraq and that this expectation puts pressure on the caretaker government. It also reported that Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned in Washington last week to hear U.S. condemnation of attacks by Iran-backed factions on American personnel and diplomatic missions, according to State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Bigot, who said in a statement that the U.S. “will not tolerate any attacks targeting its interests” and expects the Iraqi government to take “all necessary measures immediately to dismantle Iran-aligned militia groups.”
In Iraq, AP said, militia influence remains resistant to government attempts to rein it in. The report said al-Sudani has taken limited steps including further institutionalizing the PMF and occasionally removing commanders who act outside state authority, but that militia groups have met those efforts with significant resistance. It said further institutionalizing the PMF has deepened entrenchment and that the U.S. may seek to isolate the most hard-line factions—including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada—from other more embedded groups.
Harakat al-Nujaba spokesperson al-Kaabi offered what AP described as a dual framing of the group’s position. In addition to stressing alignment with Iran, he said the group operates within Iraq’s political order. “To put it bluntly, we are allies of the Islamic Republic,” he told AP, describing the group as part of Iran’s regional “axis” alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and Ansar Allah in Yemen. At the same time, he said the group supports the state and government “when they serve national interests,” and he added, “It’s true we’re not affiliated with the government or the prime minister, but we respect the law and the constitution,” according to AP.