The 'Martyrs' Cemetery of Kata'ib Hezbollah in Najaf (I)
Archival Documentation Project
The area of Wadi al-Salam (‘Valley of Peace’) in Iraq’s holy Shia city of Najaf is popularly considered to be the world’s largest cemetery. Besides the huge number of civilians buried there, a number of Iraq’s armed Shia factions also maintain special sections devoted to their ‘martyrs’- members of these factions killed in various military campaigns.
The section maintained by Kata’ib Hezbollah- one of the factions ideologically aligned with Iran- is one of the more impressive examples. The following post documents part of the ‘martyrs’ cemetery maintained by the group in Najaf, based on photos I took of the tombs. The cemetery itself that is accessible to visitors is divided into two main halls. This post- the first of a series- covers a portion of the ‘martyrs’ contained in the first hall, where the total number of ‘martyrs’ runs into the hundreds. While most of the ‘martyrs’ in the hall were killed in Kata’ib Hezbollah’s military campaigns in Iraq as part of the war against the Islamic State, a number were also killed fighting in Syria in support of the Assad regime against the insurgency and the Islamic State.
The ‘martyrdom’ records provide a very useful historical record regarding Kata’ib Hezbollah’s military operations.
For each entry, where applicable, the name of the ‘martyr’, date of ‘martyrdom’ and place of ‘martyrdom’ will be provided.
Ammar Abd al-Husayn al-Abudi
20 February 2021
Jurf al-Nasr [Jurf al-Sakhr, located south of Baghdad and home to a Kata’ib Hezbollah base and operations command].