Iraqi security forces wearing masks and black plainclothes opened fire at protesters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Tuesday, killing 18 people and wounding hundreds, security officials said.
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Mourners pray by the body of Iraqi anti-government activist Ihab al-Wazni (Ehab al-Ouazni) during his funeral at the Imam Hussein Shrine in the central holy shrine city of Karbala on May 9, 2021. – Wazni, a coordinator of protests in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, was a vocal opponent of corruption, the stranglehold of Tehran-linked armed groups and Iran’s influence in Iraq. He was shot overnight outside his home by men on motorbikes, in an ambush caught on surveillance cameras. He had narrowly escaped death in December 2019, when men on motorbikes used silenced weapons to kill fellow activist Fahem al-Tai as he was dropping him home in Karbala, where pro-Tehran armed groups are legion. (Photo by Mohammed SAWAF / AFP)
History and Objectives:
JKIH was established in 2012 asKataib Hezbollah’s (KH) youth organization. In most of these years, Abu Talib al-Saeedi, a senior KH leader was the head of JKIH.
In 2012 JKIH signed a memorandum of agreement with Kashaf al-Imam Mahdi (KIM), a Lebanese youth organization wieldy know to be run by the Lebanese Hezbollah. Newspaper reports indicate that “young recruits to the Al-Mahdi Scouts are groomed from the ages of four to become supporters and fighters for [the Lebanese] Hezbollah”
The memorandum included training camps run by KIM. These training camps took place in Lebanon in the first three years. On the fourth year in 2015 a group of experienced KIM trainers came to the Iraqi city of Karbala to train 90 JKIH members on leadership skills. The objective of these camps was to “transfer the experience of KIM to the leaders of JKIH” according to one KIM coach. So far JKIH has held 14 camps, the last one was in February 2020 in Karbala.