Iran-aligned militias named terrorists; antifa may be next

President Donald Trump Wednesday night said he planned to designate antifa, an umbrella term for left-wing militias, as a terror organization. The president characterized the group as sick, dangerous, and radical. The groups funding antifa should also be thoroughly investigated, Trump added. The president’s remarks came the same day that his administration formally designated four Iran-aligned militia groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called for antifa to be designated as a terror group days earlier while hearing testimony from FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday. When asked, Patel described the group as being associated with violence around the country, but stopped short of calling it a terror group. Trump first vowed to designate antifa as a terror group in 2020, which never came to pass.

What exactly is antifa? The name is short for anti-fascist, and is known as an ideological movement more than an organized group. Antifa is mainly known as a decentralized network of far-left militants that oppose what they deem as fascists, racists, or extreme far right, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Antifa gained notoriety in 2020 for its connection to violent, widespread riots after the death of George Floyd.

in 2020, FBI Director Chrisopher Wray testified to Congress that the FBI at the time viewed antifa as more of a anarchist ideology or movement, rather than an organization. But he added that the FBI had a number of domestic terrorism investigations into violent anarchist extremists who identified with the antifa movement.

What groups were formally designated as terrorists? The State Department released a Wednesday notice designating four Iran-aligned militia groups as terror organizations. The groups include:

• Harakat al-Nujaba - an Iraqi Shia militant group formed in 2013. Known as one of Iran’s most aggressive proxy groups focused on forcing the United States to withdraw from Iraq, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

• Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada - an Iraqi militia group founded in 2013. The group is known to fight in both Iraq and Syria, and maintains close connections with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Houthis, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

• Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya - known as an Iraq-based Iran-aligned militia group and part of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, according to a 2024 State Department news release. The group took part in dozens of attacks on U.S. military personnel, including one attack that killed three military members in Jordan, the department added.

• Kata’ib al-Imam Ali - an Iraq-based militant group founded in 2014 as part of the Islamic Movement of Iraq that has fought in Iraq and Syria, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on several Haitian gangs being designated as terror groups earlier this year.