By Anas al-Bar | 2024-05-11

Faced with a series of damaging insider leaks, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been providing training to a group of Iraqi and Lebanese militia elements to improve its surveillance of allied militiamen.

A group of Iraqi and Lebanese elements of Iran-aligned militias are receiving technical training to learn how to hack into mobile phones and electronic accounts and uncover the sources of any information leaks.

The new move comes as the IRGC and allied militias claim there are "agents or infiltrators" within their ranks who are responsible for information leaks.

They say this explains the accuracy of recent air strikes that successfully targeted key militia leaders, control centers and secret weapon caches in Syria and Iraq.

In an April 3 report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 Iraqi and Lebanese militia elements took part in a technical course held in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.

Here, under the supervision of an Iraqi militia leader and the leader of a Syrian militia aligned with the IRGC, they learned how to hack into communications devices and mobile phones, websites and social media accounts.

The new training comes as Iran-aligned militias conduct inspections of the phones and computers of elements deployed at their most sensitive headquarters, forcing militiamen to install apps that monitor their accounts.

This tightening of surveillance aims to identify "agents within the ranks of the militias against the backdrop of the recent attacks on their sites and security checkpoints in the city of Albu Kamal and Deir Ezzor," the Observatory said.

State of fear

The measures reflect "a loss of confidence among elements and leaders of Iranian groups," Syrian Tribal Council spokesman Mudar al-Asaad told Al-Fassel.

"There is a state of fear and reticence with regard to security among militia elements" following targeted strikes on their strongholds and the killing of senior leaders who are directly responsible for terrorist activities, he said.

It now has become obligatory for every militia element or trainee to monitor his colleagues and submit weekly reports so IRGC officers can evaluate their loyalty and adherence to orders, he said.

Iran began conducting courses on digital security "after it discovered there was a significant lack of experience among the elements of its groups in communication technologies and applications," al-Asaad said.

It assigned specialized teams for this task -- one of which bears the name TEAM33 -- which are focused on training to detect information leaks.

Al-Asaad noted that the IRGC Quds Force directed Iraqi trainees and others to hack accounts and phones "to identify the agents responsible for the leaks."