Liwa Zainebiyoun


The Followers of Zainab Brigade is a pro-government brigade fighting in Syria composed of Shia Pakistanis. It draws recruits from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran and native Shia of Parachinar and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. 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 recent estimations, the total number of Pakistani fighters on the brigade hardly exceeds 800.

History

Pakistanis 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 Baloch.Like other Shia foreign brigades in Syria, it is funded, trained, and overseen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Its official purpose is to defend the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque 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.
On 9 April 2015, 7 fighters were killed defending the Imam Hasan Mosque and were buried in Qom, Iran. In March 2016, 6 fighters were killed defending the Imam Reza shrine, also buried in Qom. On 23 April 5 more fighters were killed. An estimated 69 fighters were killed between November 2014 and March 2016.
In early 2018 the group was involved in the Battle of Khasham against US special forces and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

Reaction in Pakistan

In December 2015, a bomb killed 23 and injured 30 in Parachinar. Terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility, and said that it was “revenge 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”.