Iranian Government Deploys Foreign Militias at Tehran Checkpoints

The same militia is also conducting neighborhood patrols alongside the regime’s security forces. A resident from Tehran told the Telegraph that for several nights people at the neighborhood checkpoint do not speak Persian. They wear uniforms associated with the Iraqi militia and communicate with gestures and a few broken words of Arabic or Persian.

The Afghan Fatemiyoun militia has also been deployed alongside the Iraqi militia in Iran’s streets. Another resident said the composition at checkpoints has changed from solely local militia members to include personnel in Arabic military uniforms who behave more harshly.

“It’s like they have no restrictions. Even the Iranians don’t say anything to them,” the resident was quoted as saying. Similar reports have emerged from Karaj, a city west of Tehran, where residents have encountered foreign personnel at checkpoints who communicate mainly through gestures and in Arabic and show less restraint than their Iranian counterparts.

Iran's government has not officially acknowledged the role of these foreign militias.

The deployments come amid ongoing economic pressures in Iran.

Images from January 2026 showed cars burning in a street in Tehran during a protest over the collapse of the currency's value. In an interview with 103FM in late April, a social media expert said footage emerging from Iran shows pressure on the government.

The expert said militias from Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan have been brought in and are seen going around in trucks in civilian clothing carrying machine guns while speaking Arabic rather than Persian.