[7] In 2021, the group claimed responsibility for the 2021 Erbil rocket attacks, which killed two civilians and injured six more, including an American soldier.

[10] The first operation of Saraya Awliya al-Dam occurred on 24 August 2020, when they attacked a group of Iraqi trucks that may have been carrying U.S. goods.

[14] SAD proclaimed:The American occupation will not be safe from our strikes in any inch of the homeland, even in Kurdistan, where we promise we will carry out other qualitative operations.

The journalist Shelly Kittleson commented:Though many armed groups and others in the country have, for more than a decade, demanded an end to the "American-Israeli occupation", the addition of "Turkish" is significant.

[20][21] Reports by the Washington Institute suggested that they might have connections to Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iraqi Shi'a paramilitary,[7][22] which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.