On June 15, 2026, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) released a new report about how commanders and supporters of Iran-backed Iraqi militias eulogized U.S. designated terrorist and senior Hizbullah commander ‘Ali Mousa Daqdouq and praised him for his training of Iraqi resistance groups and for attacks on U.S. forces.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on June 14 that it had eliminated ‘Ali Mousa Daqdouq, a Lebanese Hizbullah commander who held a series of five senior positions within the group, in a June 12 airstrike in southern Lebanon. According to the IDF, Daqdouq commanded a Hizbullah cell responsible for the group’s “entrenchment in Syria,” establishment of military infrastructure near the Israeli border, and much of the group’s operational planning against Israeli soldiers in recent years.
Daqdouq masterminded a January 2007 attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in Karbala, Iraq. He was captured by U.S. Coalition forces in southern Iraq in March 2007, along with brothers Qais and Laith Al-Khazali of the Iraqi militia Jaysh Al-Mahdi – now known as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq – and kept in U.S. custody until December 2011, when he was transferred to Iraqi custody and tried on charges of terrorism and using false documents, of which he was acquitted in May 2012. Following his release in November of that year, the U.S. Treasury Department designated him a terrorist.
The Treasury Department noted that Daqdouq joined Hizbullah in 1983 and served in multiple leadership positions for the group, including commanding a special forces unit and heading a protective detail for Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. At Iran’s request, Nasrallah established a covert Hizbullah unit to train Iraqis to fight U.S. Coalition forces. in 2006, Hizbullah ordered Daqdouq to work with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to provide training and equipment to Jaysh Al-Mahdi members in order to increase their ability to harm U.S. troops.
Although Hizbullah has not yet acknowledged Daqdouq’s death, commanders and supporters of Iran-backed Iraqi Shi’ite militias have eulogized him. Following is a selection of the eulogies:
Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq Leadership Eulogized Daqdouq For Helping Train Iraqi Resistance Against U.S. Occupation
Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais Al-Khazali extended condolences to Hizbullah leadership and Daqdouq’s family after the latter “attained the honor of martyrdom, advancing and not retreating, on the path to Jerusalem.” Al-Khazali praised Daqdouq aka Hajj Abu Yaser as an example of a mujahid who “pledged his entire life for the sake of elevating the word of the truth and repelling the oppressors,” noting that during the “American occupation of Iraq,” Daqdouq was “one of the first who heeded the call of duty and stood shoulder to shoulder with his brothers the mujahideen in Iraq.” With his “military acumen and exceptional courage,” Daqdouq helped “organize, train, and develop the capabilities of the heroic Islamic Resistance and made the occupation forces taste the bitterness of defeat.”
