FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al-Naqshabandi (JRTN)
( AS OF FEBRUARY 2023 )
OVERVIEW
Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al-Naqshabandi (JRTN), the Army of Men of the Naqshabandi Order, is a defunct terrorist militia that was based in Iraq. Founded in 2006 after Iraqi President Saddam Husayn’s execution, JRTN consisted of former Ba‘ath Party officials, former Iraqi soldiers, and Sunni violent extremists who sought to end foreign influence in Iraq and replace the Iraqi Government with a new Ba‘athist regime. After the majority of US forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, JRTN refocused its efforts against Iraqi state forces.
In 2014, JRTN cooperated with ISIS to attack Iraqi security forces and played a role in some of ISIS’s most significant military advances, including the seizure of Mosul—Iraq’s second largest city at the time—and Tikrit. Despite this cooperation, the two groups later clashed, and ISIS had largely eradicated JRTN by 2015. JRTN has not claimed any attacks since 2016.
OPERATING AREA
Formerly operated in Central and Northern Iraq
MEMBERS
None; 1,500 to 5,000 as of 2011
TACTICS AND TARGETS
JRTN used IEDs, indirect fire, and sniper attacks to wage guerrilla warfare against Coalition forces and Iraqi Security Forces.
FOREIGN TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated JRTN as a foreign terrorist organization on 30 September 2015.
KEY LEADERS
Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri [DECEASED]
Former JRTN leader; previously served as senior military deputy to Saddam Husayn; died sometime before 2020
Wathiq Alwan al-Amiri
JRTN’s media coordinator; was arrested by US and Iraqi forces in 2009
NOTABLE ATTACKS
3 January 2015
Near Mosul, Iraq
JRTN fighters used an antitank grenade to attack an Iraqi army convoy, wounding three Iraqi soldiers.
10 June 2014
Mosul, Iraq
JRTN fighters assisted in ISIS’s capture of Mosul by seizing control of bridges connecting the city’s eastern and western halves.
2006-2011
Throughout Iraq
JRTN planned, financed, and facilitated militant attacks against US forces.