REUTERS

Iran has hand picked hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, forming smaller, elite and fiercely loyal factions in a shift away from relying on large groups with which it once exerted influence.

The new covert groups were trained last year in drone warfare, surveillance and online propaganda and answer directly to officers in Iran's Quds Force, the arm of its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that controls its allied militia abroad.

They have been responsible for a series of increasingly sophisticated attacks against the United States and its allies, according to accounts by Iraqi security officials, militia commanders and Western diplomatic and military sources.

The tactic reflects Iran's response to setbacks - above all the death of military mastermind and Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, who closely controlled Iraq's Shi'ite militia until he was killed last year by a U.S. drone missile strike.

His successor, Esmail Ghaani, was not as familiar with Iraq's internal politics and never exerted the same influence over the militia as Soleimani.

Iraq's large pro-Iran militia were also forced to adopt a lower profile after a public backlash led to huge mass demonstrations against Iranian influence in late 2019. They were hit by divisions after Soleimani's death and seen by Iran as becoming harder to control.