Liwa Zainebiyoun

Liwa Zainebiyoun لواء زينبیون
Commander	Saqib Haider Karbalai †[1] Tehran Turi † Irshad Hussain (“Qalandar”) †
Dates of operation	2012,[2] but officially in late 2014 – present[3]
Allegiance	Iran (IRGC)
Active regions	Syria[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Ideology	Shia Islamism Jihadism (Shia)[9][10] Khomeinism Wilayat al Faqih[11] Anti-Zionism[12][13][14][15] Anti-Americanism[16]
Slogan	إِن يَنصُرْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ [Quran 3:160] "If Allah helps you, none can defeat you."[17][18][19]
Status	Active (banned in Pakistan)[20]
Size	~Several hundreds (est. 2014)[15] c. 800+ (est. 2019)[15]
Part of	Axis of Resistance[19][21]
Allies	State allies Iran Iraq (Popular Mobilization Units)[21]  Russia[16] Syria  Yemen (Supreme Political Council) Non-State allies National Defence Forces[22] Liwa Fatemiyoun Hezbollah Afghanistan Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas  Hezbollah Houthis
Opponents	State opponents  United States[16]  Israel[15]  Yemen (Presidential Leadership Council)  Saudi Arabia[15] Non-State opponents National Front for Liberation Free Syrian Army Syrian National Army[23] Islamic Front al-Nusra Front Tahrir al-Sham Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Ahrar al-Sham Syrian Democratic Forces Lashkar-e-Jhangvi[24] Sipah-e-Sahaba[25] Pakistani Taliban[26][27][28]
Battles and wars	Syrian Civil War Battle of Aleppo (2012–2016) Aleppo offensive (October–November 2016)[29] Aleppo offensive (November–December 2016)[30] Siege of Deir ez-Zor Palmyra offensive (2017) Hama offensive (March–April 2017) Battle of Khasham[16] Northwestern Syria offensive (December 2019–March 2020)[31] War in Iraq (2013–2017)[32] Yemeni Civil War[33] Sectarian violence in Pakistan[34]
Designated as a terrorist group by	Pakistan[35]

The Followers of Zainab Brigade (Arabic: لِوَاء الزَّيْنَبِيُون, romanized: Liwā’ az-Zaynabīyūn, Persian: لواء زينبیون or لشکر زينبیون, Liwa Zeinabiyoun or Lashkare Zeinabiyoun, Urdu: لواء زینبیون), also known as the Zainebiyoun Brigade or Zainebiyoun Division, is a Pakistani Shia Khomeinist militant group actively engaged in the Syrian Civil War.^[37][4] It draws recruits mainly from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran,^[4][38] with some also Shia Muslim communities living in various regions of Pakistan.^[3][39]

It was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and operates under their command.^[4] Initially tasked with defending the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque,^[5][6] it has since entered frontlines across Syria.^[3] Its dead are buried primarily in Iran.^[4][6] Approximately 158 of their fighters have died in Syria as of March 2019, excluding those killed in Israeli airstrikes.^[14] According to 2019 estimates, the total number of Pakistani fighters in the brigade barely exceeded 800.^[15]