Several commanders of Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Shia militia, were assassinated in the capital in unidentified airstrikes on residential areas. Yet not all the Shia militias have been eager to join the fight. Many Shia elites, including paramilitary leaders, showed no desire to abandon their second lives of comfort and state largesse, even as Iran was being bombed during the 12-Day War in June 2025.
That afternoon, I emerged from traffic onto a crossroads in al-Mansour, a district that had once been prosperous. I found myself beholding a billboard commemorating Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander; Sayid Hasan Nasrullah, the leader of Hezbollah; Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Kataib Hezbollah, and several fighters of his militia. A parade of martyrs killed in American or Israeli air strikes, assembled like a defeated football side making one last appearance. “Our weapons,” a quote on the billboard read, “we owe the Imam al-Hujjah,” alluding to the disappeared and awaited Shia redeemer, Imam al-Mahdi. In this quiet dialogue with the dead, the people on the street needed no words to absorb the message.
