The Faithful Resistance (al-Muqawma al-Mu’mina) is a Lebanese Islamist organization consisting of almost 200 members. Funded by Iran, it is a seemingly independent Amal splinter group that maintains close ties to Hezbollah; some sources say it actually began as an offshoot of Hezbollah.

The Faithful Resistance was established by Mustafa Dirani, the onetime head of Amal’s security service. According to a well-informed Shi’ite source, in 1988 Dirani traveled to Syria to meet with the Iranian ambassador to Damascus, Hassan Akhtiri. Akhtiri gave Dirani $700,000 to finance terrorist attacks by the Faithful Resistance against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Two years earlier, in January 1986, the Faithful Resistance had carried out a Katyusha rocket attack on northern Israel.