Kataib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam

Kataib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam
كتائب روح الله عيسى بن مريم
Leaders	Salwan Momika
Dates of operation	2014–present
Allegiance	Iraq
Active regions	Iraq
Ideology	Syriac Christianism
Part of	Kata'ib al-Imam Ali
Opponents	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Battles and wars	Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)

Kataib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam (Arabic: كتائب روح الله عيسى بن مريم; lit. The Brigade of the Spirit of God Jesus Son of Mary) is a militia composed of Christian Assyrians, trained and supplied by an Iraqi Shi'ite militia as a subgroup in the fight against ISIL.

Kataib Rouh was formed in December 2014 as a Christian subgroup of the Kataib al-Imam Ali (Brigade of Imam Ali), itself the armed wing of Harakat al-Iraq al-Islamiyah (Movement of the Islamic Iraq).^[1] Kataib al-Imam Ali entered the war against ISIL in June 2014 as a predominantly Shiite militia backed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Upon the formation of the group, KIA opened a training session for Assyrian soldiers to take part of.^[2]

Indian magazine The Week noted that the group had operated on the outskirts of Mosul from 2017, and that they had also been sanctioned by the U.S. government since 2018.^[3] Amidst other Assyrian militias that took part in the Iraqi Civil War, the number of active soldiers in Kataib Rouh Allah was likely much smaller.^[4]

The militia was rediscovered after the 2023 Quran burnings in Sweden, when a video surfaced of Salwan Momika delivering a speech addressing the brigade. Momika, an Assyrian from Bakhdida, had previously been connected to Rayan al-Kildani and the Babylon Movement, and had been part of the Syriac Assembly Movement.^[5] In his speech to the brigade, Salwan said:

“We either live with dignity or die courageously. I am the officer in charge of Kata’ib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam (the Brigade of the Spirit of God Jesus, Son of Mary), which is affiliated with the Imam Ali Brigades, peace be upon him,”.^{[5] [6]}

After the liberation of the Nineveh Plains from ISIS, the militia has not had any noteworthy public activity.^[7] Since 2018, it has not been part of any military operations in Iraq, and may have been absorbed into the larger Popular Mobilization Forces.