US blacklists new leader of Iran-backed Iraqi militia
The successor of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as leader of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah has been designated as a global terrorist by the United States.
WASHINGTON — The State Department today announced the designation of Ahmad al-Hamidawi, the leader of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group Kataib Hezbollah, as a global terrorist a day ahead of the expected confidence vote by Iraq’s parliament on a new government.
The Iraqi militia group, which is a part of the Iraqi government-backed Popular Mobilization Units, has been designated as a global terrorist group by the United States since 2009. The United States killed Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a Jan. 3 drone strike at Baghdad International Airport that targeted and also killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
In addition to storming the US Embassy in Baghdad in late December, Kataib Hezbollah “actively uses violence and terror against innocent civilians to advance the Iranian regime goal of making Iraq a vassal state,” US counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales told journalists at the State Department today.
Such groups “drain life and vitality out of Iraq,” Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker said.
