Abuzar Brigade
The Abuzar Brigade, also known as the Abuzar Division, was an Afghan Shia militia that fought in the Iran–Iraq War on the side of Iran. During the war, the group was mainly stationed in the mountainous areas of Northwestern Iran, as they had experience in both mountain and irregular warfare from the Soviet-Afghan War.
History
In the early years after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Shia Afghan militias, collectively known as the Tehran Eight, fought against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union's military which supported the DRA. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, they aligned themselves with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and sent fighters as part of the Abuzar Brigade to battle the Iraqis, suffering significant casualties throughout the conflict. During the Iran–Iraq war, fighters of the Abuzar Brigade were stationed in the mountainous areas of Northwestern Iran, as they had experience in mountain and irregular warfare from their war with the Soviets.In 2014 the IRGC created the Liwa Fatemiyoun, an Shia Afghan militia formed to fight in Syria on the side of the government. It is funded, trained, and equipped by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and fights under the command of Iranian officers. However, the group has denied direct Iranian government involvement in its activities. According to late deputy commander Sayed Hakim, the group numbers between 12,000–14,000 fighters in 2017.