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Liwa Zainebiyoun لواء زينبیون
File:ZEINAB.jpgOfficial Flag of Liwa Zainabiyoon
Dates of operation	early 2014 – present
Active regions	Sayyidah Zaynab Aleppo
Ideology	Shia Jihadism
Allies	Syrian Armed Forces Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Hezbollah File:Fatimiyun.jpg Liwa Fatemiyoun
Opponents	Free Syrian Army Islamic Front al-Nusra Front Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Battles and wars	Battle of Aleppo

The Followers of Zainab Brigade (لواء زينبیون File:ZEINAB.jpg Liwa Zainebiyoun or Liwa Zainabiyoon) is a pro-government brigade fighting in Syria composed of Shia Pakistanis. It draws recruits from Shia Hazara refugees living in Pakistan, Shia Pakistanis living in Iran, and native Shia of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Although Pakistanis have been fighting in Syria since November 2014, originally as part of the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun, they only became numerous enough to warrant a distinct brigade in early 2014. It was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and operates under their command. Initially tasked with defending the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, it has since entered the Battle of Aleppo, along with other foreign Shia fighters. Its dead are buried primarily in Iran.

History

Since the outbreak of Syrian Civil War in 2011, a plethora of violent Islamist groups have surfaced in various parts of the country, some fighting for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and many fighting against it. According to an estimate from the Soufan Group, nationals from 81 different countries are fighting in Syria (Soufan Group, 2014). Some have come to defend their sects; others are proxies for foreign interests or have been recruited as mercenaries. As the conflict has grown increasingly sectarian, these foreign fighters have also become divided along sectarian lines, with a number of liwas (groups) named after Shia and Sunni heroes, often from the early Islamic period.

Pakistani jihadis were latecomers to the Syrian conflict, but began to appear in 2013 in response to a rocket attack by Salafi militias on the shrine of Zainab ( Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque ) in Damascus. That attack – comparable for many Shia to the destruction of the Church of Holy Sepulcher by Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim Amr-Allah, in 1009, an event that paved the way for the Crusades – was the impetus for the formation of the Zainabiyoun Brigade.

Liwa Zainebiyoun Join the Syrian Conflict

By 2013, a number of Pakistani Shias were already keen to join the fight against the ideologically Salafist Islamic State (IS), a result of IS’ campaign of destruction targeting Shia holy shrines in Syria and Iraq. The 2013 rocket attack by IS on the Sayeeda Zainab mosque in central Damascus, which destroyed the outer walls of the shrine of Zainab, the sister of Imam Hussain and granddaughter of Mohammed, provided the catalyst; a new militant unit of Pakistani Shias, the Zainabiyoun Brigade, was raised with Iranian support. Up until this point, the security of the tomb of Zainab was the responsibility of the Liwa Abul Fadl al-Abbas, which was comprised of Iraqi and Syrian Shia volunteers. This iwa was also responsible for securing holy shrines in Aleppo where its rival, the Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, a brigade afiliated with IS, inflicted a crushing defeat on it in May 2014.

The Zainabiyoon group

The group's official purpose is the defense of the shrine of Zaynab bint Ali( Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque ), the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad. A member claims that "We do not fight for money, we fight for love, meaning that we fight to defend the shrine of Zaynab bint Ali( Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque )" Many fighters are from the Shia-dominated Parachinar, in the Kurrum district of Pakistan’s lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Some are ethnic Baluch are also fighters, although it is unclear whether they hail from Pakistani or Iranian Baluchistan .

The Zainabiyoun Brigade has been largely restricted to Damascus where scores of its fighters were supposedly killed while defending the shrine of Zainab. In another battle on April 9, 2015, another seven were killed defending the Imam Hasan Mosque in Damascus. The Brigade has also fought alongside Syrian forces in the Darra region, in southern Syria.

At least six fighters from the Zainabiyoun Brigade died in fighting in March 2016 and were buried in the Iranian holy city of Qom. On April 23, in a separate battle, five more Pakistanis were killed and later also buried Qom.

Anti-Shia violence in Pakistan

In Pakistan, anti-Shia attacks have been directed in response to the establishment of the Zainabiyoun Brigade. A bomb blast in downtown Parachinar, a Shia majority town in Kurrum district of tribal areas, in December 2015 killed 23 people and wounded 30 others. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (al-Alami Faction), the anti-Shia violent group, claimed responsibility. In a statement, the Islamist group’s spokesperson Ali Abu Sufyan said the attack was “revenge the crimes against Syrian Muslims by Iran and Bashar al-Assad” and a warning to the people in Parachinar to “stop sending people to take part in Syrian war” (Express Tribune, December 13, 2015).

Pakistan’s Sunnis have also committed fighters to Syria. An IS cell in Sialkot, which was busted by security forces in 2015, was in direct communications with IS leaders and had sent more than 100 Islamist militants to fight alongside the IS forces in Syria and Iraq (NDTV, January 5). Those arrested were previously part of the Salafi Islamist group Jamaat ud Dawa. Besides the Sialkot cell, two other cells were uncovered in Karachi and Islamabad in 2015.

IS has found that by playing the anti-Shia card it can win support from among ant-Shia groups in Pakistan and elsewhere. The presence of IS in Pakistan – which until recently had been denied by the Pakistani government – as well as continued sectarian violence means the membership of the Zainabiyoun Brigade is likely to grow.

So too, Iran will likely support a large role for the Zainabiyoun Brigade. It appears eager to bolster the ranks of Pakistani and Afghan Shia militants in Syria, as it seeks to roll back some of its involvement in the fighting.

See Also

• Liwa Fatemiyoun
• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War

References

1. ^ "Liwa Zainebiyoun: Syria's Pakistani Fighters". iraqeye.
2. Robert Fisk (26 February 2016). "Syria civil war: State-of-the-art technology gives President Assad's army the edge". The Independent.
3. "Liwa Zainebiyoun".
4. ^ "Meet the Zainebiyoun Brigade: An Iranian Backed Pakistani Shia Militia Fighting in Syria". Retrieved 28 April 2016.
5. ^ "Funeral Service for Seven Pakistani Militants Killed in Syria; Qom, Iran, Apr 2015". Konflictcam.
6. Farhan Zahid (27 May 2016). "The Zainabiyoun Brigade: A Pakistani Shiite Militia Amid the Syrian Conflict". Terrorism Monitor Volume.
7. Farhan Zahid (27 May 2016). "The Zainabiyoun Brigade: A Pakistani Shiite Militia Amid the Syrian Conflict". Terrorism Monitor Volume.
8. Jamal al-Ghorabi (March 29, 2013). "The Damascus: Guardians of Zainab's Shrine". Al-Akhbar Management.
9. "The Damascus: Guardians of Zainab's Shrine". MEMRI. May 5, 2015.
10. "The Zainabiyoun Brigade". 3 March 2016.
11. Farhan Zahid (27 May 2016). "The Zainabiyoun Brigade: A Pakistani Shiite Militia Amid the Syrian Conflict". Terrorism Monitor Volume.

• Pro-government factions of the Syrian Civil War
• Military units and formations established in 2015