<a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=EN">Estonia</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=LG">Latvia</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=LH">Lithuania</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=RS">Russia</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=UP">Ukraine</a>

The Saad bin Abi Waqas Brigades is an offshoot of al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq. The group takes its name from an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed, who was one of the earliest known converts to Islam.<br /><p><br />The Brigades opposes the "American occupation" in Iraq and is known to attack Shia and American targets. It has demonstrated a range of tactics and methods in the short time it has been active. Its first operation took place in January 2005 and was an armed attack that killed Mahmud al-Madahaini (a prominent aide to Shia Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini al-Sistani), al-Madahaini's son, and several bodyguards. This was part of a wave of anti-Shia violence that occurred before the January 2005 legislative elections in Iraq, which various Sunni groups attempted to render illegitimate through a general boycott. In November of that year, the Saad bin Abi Waqas Brigades kidnapped six Iranian Shia pilgrims and their Iraqi guide near Balad. The purpose of the attack appears to be to terrorize Shias, as no motives or demands were given in the video claiming the attack.<br />

The Saad bin Abi Waqas Brigades' last attack occurred in December 2005 and targeted an American base with a Katyusha rocket. Given the level of sectarian strife in Iraq, growing frustration with American and coalition postwar reconstruction efforts, and general discontent of Shia Iraqis with the democratically-elected government of Iraq, the group is expected to remain active.<br /><br />

Saif-ul-Muslimeen Lashkar Jihad, Sword of Muslims

Saif-ul-Muslimeen (Sword of Muslims) is a terrorist group that has operated in eastern Afghanistan. Although officially held responsible only for the April 2003 rocket attack on a military airport in Jalalabad, the group has claimed a number of other attacks, including the bombing of UNICEF's Jalalabad office. As the group's attacks have focused on the new Afghan government and Western institutions, it is presumed that the group is oriented both religiously and politically, opposing the post-Taliban situation in Afghanistan in which a secular regime governs from Kabul with U.S. support.