I once read that on Washington Institue:
"Formed in 2013 and trained by the Qods Force in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, the Zainabiyoun Brigade is another volunteer outfit fighting in Syria. The IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency
described the unit as an elite assault force with over 5,000 young Pakistani Shiite fighters, though Reuters and other Western outlets cite no more than a thousand. Many originally lived in Parachinar and its surrounding villages in northwestern Pakistan, then migrated to Iran or the United Arab Emirates. While demand to fill Zainabiyoun's ranks reportedly increased when the UAE expelled some 12,000 Pakistani Shiite workers in recent years, the brigade's core members came from al-Mustafa International University, a religious institution that is based in Qom but has branches in Islamabad and Beirut as well as numerous affiliate organizations elsewhere (e.g., the Islamic College of London, Indonesia Islamic College, the Islamic University College of Ghana).
According to an
Iranian magazine interview with Zainabiyoun's current commander, known only as "Karbala," recruits receive some training in Mashhad before shipping to Syria. Some also undertake special weapons training, including a forty-five-day sniper course.
Once on the battlefield in Syria, Zainabiyoun units are occasionally led by Qods Force or Hezbollah officers. A July 26
Fars News profile claimed that they have a reputation for perseverance and a no-retreat attitude, though this is not widely noted elsewhere. The Fars story also claimed that Zainabiyoun has suffered about a hundred deaths in the past three years of fighting, mostly while breaking the siege of the towns of Nubl and Zahra north of Aleppo this February. While this figure is not corroborated by funeral notices, most Zainabiyoun fighters prefer to hide their identity, fearing reprisals by Taliban or Pakistani intelligence.
Many brigade members are already speculating about what will become of them after the Syria war. In the same July 26 Fars story, one Zainabiyoun commander openly criticized the Pakistani army's "un-Islamic" character, then proclaimed, "God willing, the Zainabiyoun fighters will return [triumphantly] from the Syrian insurrection and will become the Supreme Leader's right hand in the world." Another commander promised that Zainabiyoun will fight the "takfiri-Zionist" enemies upon returning to Pakistan. Such statements point to aspirations for a future role in areas such as Parachinar, whose isolated Shiite population has been under pressure from Taliban militants and government-backed militias since 2007. For its part, Iran has made significant investments in Parachinar, Lahore, Karachi, and other Shiite areas of Pakistan in order to compete with Saudi Arabia in shaping local opinion and woo recruits.
Similarly, in the July 2016 issue of the conservative Iranian magazine
Panjereh, one Zainabiyoun commander
expressed his willingness to fight on any front deemed necessary by Supreme Leader Khamenei, whether in Iraq, Israel, or Saudi Arabia; another commander declared, "God willing, we will liberate the house of God and destroy the Saudi royal family before reaching [Jerusalem]." Other members of the Iranian-led "resistance front" have emphasized this prioritization recently as well -- for example, in an
August interview with the Lebanese television channel al-Mayadeen, Hezbollah executive council chair Hashem Safieddine said that "Shiites should remove obstacles put in place by the region's hopeless and corrupt regimes before destroying Israel."."
