Exclusive: In tactical shift, Iran grows new, loyal elite from among Iraqi militias

FILE PHOTO: Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, the newly appointed commander of Iran's Quds Force, reads the will of Major General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. air strike at Baghdad Airport, during the forty day memorial at the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, Iran February 13, 2020. Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has hand picked hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, forming smaller, elite and fiercely loyal factions in a shift away from relying on large groups with which it once exerted influence.

The new covert groups were trained last year in drone warfare, surveillance and online propaganda and answer directly to officers in Iran's Quds Force, the arm of its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that controls its allied militia abroad.