Pro-Iran factions in Iraq are embarking on a recruitment drive to enlist volunteers to fight alongside Iranian forces in the event of a US ground offensive.
Several armed Shia groups mobilised in response to the US-Israel war on Iran and have mounted dozens of attacks against American forces over the past month.
The same groups have now issued a call to arms to the Shiite community, though their efforts are struggling to gain traction, according to people who spoke with The New Arab. The campaign is reportedly being led by several factions inside the Popular Mobilisation Forces, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi.
Kataeb Hezbollah, which has been at the forefront of attacks in Iraq, is attempting to assemble a volunteer battalion called Haider al-Karrar in Najaf province and has opened recruitment centres in Al Muthanna, Babil and Al-Qadisiyyah provinces under the title 'Martyrdom Operations'.
Harakat al-Nujaba, another PMF faction, is also trying to assemble volunteer forces to fight alongside Iran.
Meanwhile, prominent Shiite cleric Sadr al-Din al-Qabanchi has launched a recruitment campaign in Baghdad and Najaf.
Several residents of Najaf contacted by TNA expressed scepticism about getting more deeply involved in the widening regional conflict.
"Iraqi youth are not fuel for any external war," resident Falah al-Moussawi said.
"Iraq stands with Iran against the aggression it faces from Israeli and American forces, but that does not mean we fight in defence of Iran."
The campaigns are taking place in contravention of Iraqi law, which bans Iraqi nationals from fighting for foreign powers.
"Armed factions and extremist clerics are trying to drag Iraq into Iran's war," activist Ali al-Hujaymi told TNA. "The Iraqi judiciary has prohibited the recruitment of Iraqis into foreign armies," he said, calling on the government to prevent what he described as the "exploitation of Iraqi youth".
Local pro-Iran factions have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks against American facilities and Iraqi oil sites since the US and Israel assassinated Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on 28 February.
Sites targeted include the US embassy in Baghdad, American military assets in Iraqi Kurdistan and oil infrastructure in the south.
The US has responded with a bombing campaign that has killed dozens of fighters across the country.
The recruitment drive comes amid rising speculation that Donald Trump could authorise the deployment of US ground troops in an attempt to wrest back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.
Tens of thousands of US troops have been deployed to the region ahead of a possible invasion, which US news reports have suggested could target a cluster of islands near the strategic waterway or Iran's oil export hub at Kharg Island .