While the Obama administration focuses its attention on the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, it is ignoring an equally deadly and unchecked terrorist force in the Middle East: the Shiite militias of Iraq. Groups such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the main three of the nearly 40 Shiite militias working under Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, an umbrella organization created, funded and supported by Iran in mid-2014, ostensibly to take on IS. However, as the Saudis and their allies have long known, these militias are in fact a growing terrorist force that has been causing havoc and bloodshed for more than a decade in the name of a sectarian Shiite revolution.

To prepare for the possibility of having to take on these militias in the near future, a massive military training exercise code-named Northern Thunder is getting underway next week in the north of the kingdom. Under the umbrella of the newly announced Saudi-led Islamic anti-terror coalition, joint land, air and naval exercises will take place on the Saudi border adjacent to Iraq. The Saudi National Guard has been conducting exercises and deploying in and out of the theater of operation for the last year, giving it the ability to have around 75,000 troops on the ground at any one time around the Hafar Al Batin military city. The coalition’s first joint exercises will include special forces, mechanized and infantry battalions, as well as air and naval forces from 20 countries, including Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Sudan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mauritania, Chad and all the Arab Gulf states. Overall, between 150,000 to 200,000 troops are taking part in Northern Thunder.

The coalition views these exercises as necessary because Western neglect and a policy of appeasement toward Iran have allowed Tehran to build up these Shiite militia forces such that they have swollen into a disorganized but determined force of over 100,000 men with a substantial arsenal. Many of them have been directly implicated in political violence, torture, murder and terror. A closer look at Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization, which are now the primary focus Saudi’s Islamic coalition, gives a clear picture of their violent tactics and direct involvement in destabilizing Iraq and Syria.

Active since the Shiite uprising in Iraq in 2004, Asaib Ahl al-Haq has claimed responsibility for over 6,000 attacks since 2004. Their victims have included US servicemen, international ambassadors and citizens, as well as Iraqi civilians. In early 2007, they infiltrated the US Army’s offices in Karbala and killed five soldiers. They are also very active in the Syrian war on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.