[citation needed] The party propaganda indicated that its goal was to restore the regime of Saddam Hussein to power, as the name indicates, and expel multinational occupation forces from the country.

The name was chosen for propaganda reasons to raise the threat of the Ba'ath Party's return to power and to evoke the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

[2] Ahmed's attempts to recruit support in Syria from former Iraqi Ba'athists are meeting some success, particularly among the poorer Sunni Arab segment of the refugee population, due in part to Ahmed's ability to offer cash incentives and Syrian residency permits due to their closeness to the Syrian government.

[3] It could be said that al-Ahmed has returned to the Ba'ath Party's original ideology of secular pan-Arab nationalism, which, in many cases, has proven successful in Iraq's Shi'a-dominated southern provinces.

[3] It's been rumoured that al-Awda has fought on the side of Bashar Al-Assad in the Syrian civil war According to leaked diplomatic cables, in March 2009, several members of the former Ba'athist government claiming to represent the Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed led faction of the Ba'ath party approached Coalition Forces and the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Saladin Governorate.

[citation needed] In December 2008, some 25 security officials were arrested for membership in Awda and attempting to restore the Ba'ath party, with some claiming they were planning a coup.

[5][6] The actual number of those involved may have reached 35, and included both Sunnis and Shiites and high-ranking generals at the Interior Ministry, some of whom Awda had allegedly recruited through bribery.

The government claimed the group had been trying to reorganize the Ba'ath party, and work to undermine stability in the country, with a mind to seizing power following the US withdrawal the following year.