Shia Armed Forces in Conflicts in the Middle East is an ongoing study being conducted by Justice Beyond Borders. It is a unique online map that presents the activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces as well as their sponsored Shia armed groups in the recent or current conflicts in Syria (2011-2020), Iraq (2014-2017) and Yemen (2014-2020). The project also documents the international crimes allegedly committed by those forces and identify the perpetrators to the extent possible.

The project aims to increase public knowledge in this field, by demonstrating a fact-based picture of the Islamic Republic and its sponsored armed groups in the regional conflicts, and to contribute to the existing and future accountability measures, by providing evidence of international crime.

The collection of information for this study has mainly relied on materials published in Farsi by state officials, military sources or other sources affiliated with the Islamic Republic or Shia armed groups. This includes statements, reports, profiles of deceased forces, pictures, videos, documentary films and content of social media accounts that confirms their presence on particular battles in particular time or times. This has been supplemented by other publicly available information about operations of those forces in English or Arabic.

• Derived from the definition of armed forces introduced by ICRC in its Customary IHL database, the word ‘force’ in this map include both regular and irregular armed forces.