Terror organization: Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH)

Status: Secretary-general of Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH)

Role: designated as SDGT by the US treasury since 2020. He joined the organization in 2007 after he received a military, intelligence, and political training in Iran under the IRGC supervision. Alonf the years he was planed and participated attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria.

Location: Iraq.

Date Of Birth: March 25, 1974;

Citizenship: Iraqi

Known Also As: Ahmad Muhsin Faraj; Ahmad Muhsin Faraj al-Hamidawi; Ahmed Kadhim Raheem al-Saedi; Ahmad Kazim Rahim al-Sa’idi; Abu Husayn;

Activities:
Ahmad al-Hamidawi is the secretary-general of Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH). The U.S. government designated Hamidawi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on February 26, 2020. Hamidawi reportedly joined KH in 2007, shortly after the group’s founding. He received political, military, and intelligence training from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was soon promoted to the KH’s Shura Council. As a commander within KH, Hamidawi played a central role in planning attacks against American and Iraqi government security forces between 2007 and 2011.

KH is an Iranian-sponsored, anti-American Shiite militia operating in Iraq with ancillary operations throughout Syria. KH is supported by the Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of Iran’s IRGC. During the U.S.-led war in Iraq that began in 2003, KH earned a reputation for planting deadly roadside bombs and using improvised rocket-assisted mortars (IRAMs) to attack U.S. and coalition forces. According to U.S. diplomat Ali Khedery, KH is responsible for “some of the most lethal attacks against U.S. and coalition forces throughout the [U.S.-led war in Iraq].”

The U.S. government blames KH for leading protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from December 29, 2019, to January 1, 2020, during which protesters attempted to storm the embassy. Demonstrators threw stones and torched a security post. The militia supporters withdrew from the embassy at the behest of KH leaders.

On January 3, 2020, a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport killed KH leader Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, a.k.a. Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, and Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

The U.S. Department of State designated KH as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2009. The State Department designated Hamidawi under Executive Order 13224, which President Donald Trump amended in 2019 to allow for the designation of terrorist group leaders not linked to specific acts of terrorism. According to the State Department, Hamidawi “has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.”