US sanctions Deputy ‘Abu Fadak’ of Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq’

On Wednesday, Washington imposed sanctions, calling him a foreign terrorist figure, on the influential Iraqi militia leader and deputy of an Iranian-backed umbrella of paramilitary organisations.In the deteriorating days of the Trump administration, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has attempted to sanction and nominate a large number of individuals, organisations, and countries to fear the spread of terrorist organisations or terrorist supporters.

Asharq Al-Awsat announced that the Trump administration has attacked the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, Cuba, and further asserted Iran as a base for the terror group called Al-Qaeda.Numerous Iraqi authorities awaited the move by Washington against Abdulaziz Al-Mohammadawi, identified as Abu Fadak. He was identified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Wednesday. Furthermore, it was the second time in seven days that America had sanctioned a senior Iraqi state army official.

The US says, according to the Jerusalem Post, Abu Fadak was born in 1968 and is often referred to as Al-Khal, or “uncle.” He was wrongly identified by the US as being related to the Islamic State or ISIS. Fadak’s Kataib Hezbollah, however, is a pro-Iranian Shi’ite group battling ISIS, a nationalist, lethal Sunni jihadist organisation with Al-Qaeda origins.He is the acting deputy chairman of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a position he held following a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad last January that killed Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, deputy chief of the local army, one of Kataeb Hezbollah’s principal founding members and the creator of a paramilitary umbrella group.

In addition to being a member of Kataeb Hezbollah, the US charges that Abu Fadak is collaborating with the expeditionary Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to “reorganise official Iraqi state security organisations … to rather uphold Iran’s censure practises,” according to the State Department of the United States.The statement added that Iranian-backed elements, including Kataeb Hezbollah, are committed to sectarian brutality and are responsible for attacks on Iraqi diplomatic missions and administrative bodies.