Born: 1 July, 1956;

Place of Birth: Iraq;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: Iraqi;

General Info:
Born in the Diyala province in 1956, Hadi al-Amiri is the head and secretary general of the Badr Organization considered a terrorist by the United States authorities, and sponsored by Iran and based in Iraq.

Amiri is a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, and he heads the Shiite political organization Badr and his armed group, the Badr Brigade.

Hadi al-Amiri took refuge in Iran until the fall of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. There he participated in the founding of the Badr Brigade, an armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite political party which fought the Iraqi regime during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988.

Al-Amiri also has a history of inciting sectarian violence in Iraq. During a period of heightened violence between 2004 and 2006, he ordered attacks against the Sunnis.

According to a cable leaked by the US State Department, one of al-Ameri’s preferred methods of killing involved the use of an electric drill to pierce the skulls of his opponents.

Al-Amiri has denied claims that he has overseen flights passing through Iraqi airspace from Iran to Syria containing shipments of weapons to help the Syrian Government in the Syrian Civil War.

He has proclaimed his affection for Qassem Soleimani (the commander of Quds Force – a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) who was believed to have been playing an instrumental part in supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict.

He was the commander of Iraqi forces in the operation to liberate Jurf Al Sakhar during 2014 Iraqi conflict. As a commander in Popular Mobilization Forces, he has been active in the operations against the Islamic State.

Al-Amiri has been described as the most powerful and pro-Iranian leader in the Popular Mobilization Forces. In 2011, he accompanied the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on a visit to the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency, in his capacity as Secretary of Transportation and also as a foe of (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein.

On 31 December 2019, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Qais Khazali, and Falih Alfayyadh, he was identified by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a leader of the attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad.

In the aftermath of the 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike which resulted in the deaths of Qassem Soleimani and al-Muhandis, al-Amiri was seen as a candidate to replace al-Muhandis as a leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces.