Last modified: 2023-09-09 by ian macdonald
Keywords: syria | followers of zainab brigade |
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image located by Bill Garrison, 22 October 2017
Zainebiyoun flag, (Zainab Brigade}, Shia militia unit supporting Pres. Assad's government, c. 2017.
The Followers of Zainab Brigade (لواء زينبیون, Liwa Zainebiyoun or Liwa Zainabiyoon) is a pro-government (Pres. Assad) brigade fighting in Syria composed of Shia Pakistanis. It draws recruits from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran, Shia Hazara living in Pakistan, and native Shia of Parachinar and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It was formed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and operates under their command. Initially tasked with defending the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque (southern Damascus, Syria), it has since entered frontlines across Syria.
Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque: a Shia-Muslim mosque located in the city of Sayyidah
Zaynab, in the southern suburbs of Damascus, Syria. According to Shia Muslim
tradition, the mosque contains the grave of Zaynab, the daughter of ‘Alī and
Fātimah and granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. [Sunni Muslim tradition
places Zaynab's tomb in the mosque of the same name in Cairo, Egypt.] The tomb
became a center of Shia religious studies in Syria and a destination of mass
pilgrimage by Shia Muslims from across the Muslim world, beginning in the 1980s.
Bill Garrison,
22 October 2017
image located by Bill Garrison, 2 August 2023
A variation of the flag is found at
https://www.iimsr.eu/post/pakistani-intelligence-worries-about-its-returning-shiite-fighters-demobilized-by-tehran.
A variation of the flag for the Shia-Muslim militia " Liwa Zainebiyoun"
or "Zainab Brigade" operating in Syria; the large Arabic word near the
middle-bottom of the flag reads (right-to-left): "Zainebiyoun"; c. 2021.
Bill Garrison, 2
August 2023