← Americans on Iranian Soil
El despliegue de fuerzas y el plan de defensa ante una invasión terrestre estadounidense en Irán (The force deployment and defense plan against a US ground invasion of Iran)
On 29 July 2026, Itón Gadol, an Argentine Jewish news outlet, published El despliegue de fuerzas y el plan de defensa ante una invasión terrestre estadounidense en Irán. The byline is IG, in a piece credited to Itón Gadol and Agencia AJN. It says a senior commander of Iraq's al-Hashd al-Shaabi, a coalition of pro-Iran militias, said his group had sent fighters into Iran to prepare for a possible American ground invasion in the south. An American family should care because the piece is about US soldiers landing in Iran. It is a militia commander's claim about preparing for that landing.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. The rating covers the report, from Iran International via Itón Gadol, that a senior commander of Iraq's al-Hashd al-Shaabi militias said the group sent several thousand fighters into Iran to prepare for a possible US ground invasion in the south.
What the article says
Itón Gadol says Iran International reported that a senior commander of al-Hashd al-Shaabi said the group sent forces into Iran to prepare for a possible US ground invasion in the south of the country. The article calls al-Hashd al-Shaabi the organization of pro-Iran militias in Iraq. It says reports of those fighters in southern Iran reflect deep worry in Tehran that fighting could resume and widen into a US ground invasion, after the war that broke out in February 2026 between the United States and Israel against Iran. It names that war's operations as "Furia Épica" and "Rugido del León," Epic Fury and the Roar of the Lion.
The article says a senior commander confirmed, in those days of July 2026, that the fighters were in Iran to prepare for a direct ground war against the United States, especially on the coast and on strategic islands in the south. It names Juzestan, Iran's southwestern oil province, and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow lane tankers use to leave the Persian Gulf. It says the commander stressed that the fighters were not sent as an official deployment of al-Hashd al-Shaabi, which in theory answers to the Iraqi government. It says they were fighters with absolute religious and ideological loyalty to the ayatollahs' regime and to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, Iran's ideological armed force, and that they came to help defend the Islamic Republic.
It says intelligence reports indicate that convoys from militias such as Kataib Hezbollah entered Iran with equipment, light weapons, and camouflaged missiles, to prepare for urban fighting in Iranian cities if US forces raided them. It says analysts and military experts think the Iraqi militias have no real ability to face, in a conventional head-on fight, US special forces and US technology. Special forces are small units trained for raids, not a mass army.
"Analistas y expertos militares consideran que las milicias iraquíes no tienen una capacidad real para enfrentarse directamente, en un conflicto convencional o frontal, a las fuerzas especiales y a la superioridad tecnológica de Estados Unidos."
Itón Gadol, 29 July 2026. In English: military analysts and experts consider that the Iraqi militias have no real capacity to confront, directly, in a conventional or head-on conflict, the special forces and technological superiority of the United States.
The article says the militias rely on guerrilla war, rockets, suicide drones, and off-road vehicles, and that they are highly exposed to US firepower, precise intelligence, and air strikes. It says their only advantage in Iran would be decentralized guerrilla tactics, urban fighting, and mixing with civilians, which could make a long war inside cities harder for US troops, without preventing a military defeat.
On numbers, it says the umbrella organization groups more than 60 militias and has between 100,000 and 150,000 fighters in Iraq. It says the reports do not give an exact count of how many crossed into Iran. It says it would be the hardest core, several thousand members of the most radical militias, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq. It says the move was also shaped by heavy economic and political pressure from the Trump administration on Iraq's new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, to disarm the militias. It says that after US dollar shipments to Baghdad were suspended, some Iraqi factions came to depend on the government, while the more radical ideological factions preferred to move onto Iranian territory to keep their power.
What other reporting and posts add
What Washington was weighing that same month. The World Socialist Web Site, summarizing Wall Street Journal reporting in mid-July, wrote that Trump held a Situation Room meeting "to discuss the potential seizure of Kharg Island and other territory along the Strait of Hormuz using U.S. troops," and quoted him on Fox: "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us." The same summary cited IISS figures of Iran's "570,000 active-duty troops and 350,000 reserves." WSWS, 16 July 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md) That is the threat the militia movement described here was meant to meet.
Iraqi militias had already hit US forces. A 25 March analysis noted a Kataib Hezbollah strike on Victory Base, a US-used base near Baghdad airport, on 14 March. @WilliamThibeau, 25 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t49__v579.md) In late June, a widely shared post speculated that "some kind of combined US-Kurdish-Iraqi invasion of Iran from Iraq is being prepared." That is one poster's guess, not a report. @TOzgokmen, 28 June 2026. (capture: twitter/t04__v048.md)
Iranian volunteer numbers are claims. Iranian officials claimed millions of volunteers during the war; an X summary in May called one "11 million" figure unverified and said analysts saw such numbers as "symbolic morale boosts for the Basij paramilitary rather than verified enlistments." X trend, 16 May 2026. (capture: twitter/t42__v494.md)
What it shows
By late July 2026, allied militias were reportedly moving into southern Iran to meet an American landing. The south is where the Pentagon's reported plans pointed: Kharg Island and the coast along the Strait of Hormuz. An American ground war there would face these forces too. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid and Troop Math.
Check it yourself
No second source was opened for this page. Iran International is named only as Itón Gadol cites it.
Status: Ali al-Zaidi is alive. The article names him as Iraq's prime minister under reported US pressure to disarm militias. It does not accuse him of a crime.
Background for a new reader: the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026. By late July a ceasefire had collapsed and US officials were again discussing seizing Iranian islands and coastline. Itón Gadol is an Argentine Jewish news outlet that writes in Spanish, working with the Jewish news agency AJN. The English headline would read "The deployment of forces and the defense plan against a US ground invasion of Iran." Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (the Popular Mobilization Forces) is an umbrella of Iraqi, mostly Iran-aligned militias; Kataib Hezbollah is one of the most hardline. Iran International is a London-based Persian-language channel critical of Iran's government.
Research captures: twitter/t56__v668.md, twitter/t49__v579.md, twitter/t04__v048.md, twitter/t42__v494.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26