Here a short report about what has the potential of becoming quite an interesting issue. Namely, according to article a Shi'a Syrian-Iraqi militia, backed by Iran, threatened U.S. ships in the Red Sea in response to Trumps travel ban in a speech aired on an al Houthi news outlet from Hezbollah territory in Beirut (in Arabic), the Iraqi-Syrian Shi'a militia Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas (aka 'LAFA') intends to 'expand' to... well, at least the Red Sea, if not outright to Yemen.
This is not only surprising, but might point in direction of a major escalation.
Namely, the group in question is the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas militia ('LAFA'). This was something like the 'core' of what subsequently developed into the Hezbollah/Syria and an entire myriad of additional Shi'a militias in Syria. Unlike Hezbollah and Harakat an-Nujba, they are allied but not subordinated to the IRGC. But, they are supported by the IRGC.
LAFA's militia was greatly expanded the last two years (from one into at least three brigades; majority of staff is meanwhile of Syrian origin, while about 700 remain Iraqi citizens).
So far, the primary difference between the LAFA and the IRGC/Hezbollah conglomerate is that the LAFA doesn't espouse the Khomeinist ideology of Wilayat al-Faqih, i.e. 'Guardianship of the Jurist'. If they are now 'represented' in Lebanon, and then issuing such threats, and if they now want to expand their activities even further, and then to Yemen... well, Trump might get his 'Iranians' he's looking for in that country.
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