Liwa Zainebiyoun

The Followers of Zainab Brigade (لِوَاء الزَّيْنَبِيُون, Persian: لواء زينبیون or لشکر زينبیون, Liwa Zeinabiyoun or Lashkare Zeinabiyoun, ), also known as the Zainebiyoun Brigade or Zainebiyoun Division, is a Pakistani Shia Khomeinist militant group actively engaged in the Syrian Civil War. It draws recruits mainly from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran, with some also Shia Muslim communities living in various regions of Pakistan.

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 frontlines across Syria. Its dead are buried primarily in Iran. Approximately 158 of their fighters have died in Syria as of March 2019, excluding those killed in Israeli airstrikes. According to 2019 estimates, the total number of Pakistani fighters in the brigade barely exceeded 800.

Background
The core of Liwa Zainebiyoun is constituted of former members and fighters of the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, the former Shia Islamist armed organisation in Pakistan which fought against the Anti-Shia sectarian leadership of the banned terrorist groups Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, It had strong presence in various Shia communities in Pakistan and it was headquartered in Thokar Niaz Beg the Shia majority town of Lahore, ran a "virtual state within a state" in the 1990s until its collapse in 2007 or 2010. Later in 2013 its former members formed the Zainebiyoun Brigade as a Pakistani Shiite volunteer group after the formation of Liwa Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Afghan Shiite volunteer group under the orders of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, According to news sources affiliated with the IRGC, the group was founded in 2013 and start armed operations late in 2014 Its official purpose is to defend the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque (the shrine of Zaynab bint Ali, sister of Imam Hussain and granddaughter of the prophet Muhammad) and other Shia holy sites in Syria. It operates primarily in Damascus defending these holy sites. However, since 2015, it has also engaged in offensive action around Daraa and Aleppo, along with other foreign Shia fighters.

Recruitment and training
The Pakistani Shiite volunteers have been fighting in Syria since 2013. They originally fought in the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun, and only became numerous enough to warrant a distinct brigade in early 2015. Some of the fighters are Hazara and Baloch while others are Pashtun (mainly from Parachinar), Punjabi or Balti from Gilgit-Baltistan and Karachi including Kashmiris from the Kashmir. Like other Shiite foreign brigades in Syria, it is funded, trained, and overseen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Loses of volunteer fighters
On 9 April 2015, seven fighters were killed defending the Imam Hasan Mosque in Damascus and were buried in Qom, Iran. In March 2016, six fighters were killed defending the Imam Reza shrine, also buried in Qom. On 23 April, five more fighters were killed. An estimated 69 fighters were killed between November 2014 and March 2016.

In February 2018, the brigade was involved in the Battle of Khasham along with Russian Wagner Group and Interbrigades  against the US special forces and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and lost many fighters.

Iraq
The brigade fought in Iraq against ISIL during the War in Iraq (2013-17) with other foreign Shia fighters to defend and protect holy sites and Iraqi peoples from the ISIL.

Yemen
In 2019, Some media sources claim that the brigade is allegedly involved in Yemeni Civil War along with pro-Assad government Syrian fighters to fight against the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and to support Houthis.

Kashmir
In 2021, Israeli media report that the brigade have influence in shia majority areas of kashmir and Iran made systematic attempts to recruit Kashmiris for Brigade, A number of Kashmiri veterans of Brigade who fought against the Islamic State in Fallujah and Mosul have returned to Kashmir and they have joined the separatist Hurriyat Conference and have close relations with Hizbul Mujahideen.

Reaction in Pakistan
In December 2015, a bomb killed 25 and injured over 30 in Parachinar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility, and said that it was "revenge for the crimes against Syrian Muslims by Iran and Bashar al-Assad" and threatened to continue terror attacks if Parachinar citizens did not "stop sending people to take part in Syrian war".

The government of Pakistan officially denies the presence of Pakistani fighters in Syria, and has been reluctant to take back members of the brigade caught in Syria.

Disappearance and death of the brigade commander
The brigade's former commander, Muhammad Jannati, also known as Haj Haider, was a Pakistani Pashtun Shia militant from Parachinar, Pakistan.

In 2017, he went missing while fighting alongside Syrian government forces during the Hama offensive (March–April 2017). The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported his death in 2019, claiming that the body of Haider was transferred to Tehran two years after he was killed in the Syrian city of Hama by ISIS terrorists. According to Tasnim News Agency, the identity of the commander of the Zainabiyoun Brigade was identified after a DNA test, and he was transferred to Tehran where he was to be buried. The news agency also reported that “his body has no head and no arms" and that he was killed in action in April 2017 in the Tal Turabi area in the Hama Governorate, during the offensive.

Relationship with Liwa Fatemiyoun & Hezbollah Afghanistan
According to researcher Phillip Smyth, Liwa Fatemiyoun, Liwa Zainebiyoun and Hezbollah Afghanistan were originally different groups, but showed such great overlap in ideology and membership by 2014 that they had become "incorporated". In contrast, researcher Oved Lobel continued to regard Liwa Fatemiyoun and Hezbollah Afghanistan as separate organizations in 2018, though groups were part of Iran's "regional proxy network". Other sources such as Jihad Intel and Arab News have treated the militas as the same organization. Researcher Michael Robillard called Liwa Fatemiyoun a "branch of Hezbollah Afghanistan". Iran is also known to have established branches of Hezbollah in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with several pro-Iranian groups operating in both countries by the Soviet–Afghan War.

Designation as a terrorist organization and ban
Liwa Zainebiyoun is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2019, saying it is composed of Pakistani nationals and provides "materiel support" to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC and in 2024 the Interior Ministry of Pakistan banned the Zainebiyoun Brigade, saying it "is engaged in certain activities which are prejudicial to the peace and security" of Pakistan. It did not elaborate, A ministry official confirmed the authenticity of the March 29 order and placement of the Zaynabiyoun Brigade on a government list of 79 proscribed organizations.