Decades-long Iranian proxy attacks on U.S. troops surface in families' grief

Federal courts have ruled that Iran, via the IRGC, supplied weapons and training to militias that killed or maimed U.S. service members in Iraq, a burden still felt by the victims' families.

Federal judges concluded that Iran, acting through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, manufactured, supplied and directed sophisticated anti-armor weapons used by Iraqi proxy militias against U.S. forces. The rulings linked the deaths of Staff Sgt. William Brooks in 2005, Capt. Shawn English in 2006 and Maj. Stuart Wolfer in 2008, as well as the grave injuries of Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Bartlett, to Iranian-provided explosively formed penetrators.

Families of the fallen and wounded, including Bartlett, Tricia English and Beverly Wolfer Nerenberg, have sought legal redress under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, receiving formal acknowledgment of Iran’s role but facing difficulties collecting awarded damages. The court findings highlight a decades-old strategy by Tehran to shape Iraq’s security landscape and target U.S. troops without a formal state of war.

Survivors and relatives stress that the current hostilities are part of a continuous conflict that began long before recent headlines. Their testimonies underscore the human toll of proxy warfare and the challenge of achieving accountability for state-sponsored terrorism.