The group had used improvised explosive devices, and armed attacks against U.S.-led Coalition forces and comprises the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

It has been active in the Sunni area west of Baghdad, in the regions of Abu Ghraib, Khan Dari and Fallujah and in the governorates of Nineveh, Diyala and al-Anbar.

High-profile operations include the kidnapping of American citizen Dean Sadek in November 2004 and the bombing of the al-Arabiya television network headquarters in Baghdad in October 2005.

On 2 January 2005, the Ministry of Defence (Iraq) reported that Iraqi security forces arrested Hatim al-Zawba'i, whom they identified as a commander of the 1920 Revolution Brigades.

The 1920 Revolution Brigade turned down an offer to pledge allegiance to an insurgent coalition group, the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), established by the Jihad Base Organization in Mesopotamia.

Intermittent gunbattles have taken place between fighters of the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the Islamic State in Iraq, and rumors have circulated of negotiations between members of the group and the Iraqi government and U.S. forces.

The six groups listed a 14-point political program, including a call for continued action against US forces and a declaration that all laws passed by the Iraq government were null and void.