Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz


The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz is an Arab nationalist insurgent group that advocates for a separate Arab state in Khuzestan Province from Iran. It is classified as a terrorist group by the Iranian government.

History

In 1999, Habib Yabar and Habib Asewad Kaabi and Ahmad Mola Nissi, Khuzestan independence activists, established the ASMLA in order to continue the political struggle for the independence of Ahwaz.
On 12 June 2005, the ASMLA took responsibility for setting off four bombs, killing eight people and injuring seventy-five.
On 24 January 2006, the ASMLA set off two bombs in the city of Ahwaz, killing nine peoples of Revolutionary Guards and injuring forty-six. The first bomb went off at 9:30 AM outside Saman Bank. The second bomb went off at 10:00 AM outside the government's environmental agency building. Iran attributed the explosions to the "occupiers of Iraq", but the ASMLA claimed responsibility the next day. The Iranian government arrested fifty suspects for involvement with the bombings.
In September 2012, members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz met with members of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On 16 May 2015, the ASMLA claimed responsibility for an attack on an Iranian government office in Susangerd.
On 3 January 2017, the militant wing of the ASMLA, the Mohiuddin al Nasser Martyrs Brigade, claimed to have blown up two oil pipelines in western Khuzestan province; the claim was denied by the Iranian government in Tehran, which maintained that there was no unrest in its Arab population. The ASMLA declared that the targeted pipelines had been completely destroyed, inflicting "major damage and heavy fuel losses." Following the attack, one of the field commanders of the Mohiuddin Brigade stated that 2017 would be different from previous years, as the movement had prepared a precise, specific plan of significant strikes against the vital, sensitive economic center of the "Persian Enemy."
Ahmad Mola Nissi, the x-vice leader of the ASMLA, was shot and killed on 8 November 2017 in front of his home in The Hague, in the Netherlands.
On 22 September 2018, Yaqoob Al-Ahvaz, responsible for media management for the political branch of the Ahwaz National Resistance movement claimed responsibility for the 2018 Ahvaz military parade attack in comments to UK-based Iran International TV. He said that his group Ahvaz National Resistance, a part of Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, has "no choice but to resist." and that the attack was “heroic’ On 23 September, a statement made in The Hague, Netherlands, on the ASMLA website, denied responsibility for the attack, saying that the claim was made by a "group that was expelled from the organization since 2015".
On 30 October 2018, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service accused "Iran of plotting assassination on Danish soil", planning to kill the leader of ASMLA, who lives there. The threat of an assassination was the source of a country-wide police action in Denmark on 28 September. DSIS announced that three persons related to ASMLA are under police protection, and that there still is an active threat. Iran dismissed the accusations.
On 3 February 2020, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service announced that three members of ASMLA would be indicted for espionage, which they are alleged to have performed on behalf of Saudi Arabia while they were in Denmark