The New Leader of the PMF in Iraq

Iraq has seen tragedy in many forms. Wars, genocides, riots, killings, and what not. The real evil however lies within the architects of these inhuman practices. People who advocated the criminal acts to a level no one else could fathom. Most recently, Iraq has witnessed emerging civil right issues, and increased crimes against humanity, more than other time periods. Protests asking for basic rights were tortured or killed, women’s and children’s rights were violated, and more.

Nearly 60 days after the killing of the two terrorists, Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Iraqi Shiite armed leaders, controlled by Iran, held a meeting. In that meeting, they agreed to assign one of the leaders of the Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah militia, Abdulaziz Al-Muhammadawi as commander of the PMF. The PMF in Iraq have about 70 military factions. Some media sources stated that they attempted for more than two weeks to appoint Al-Muhammadawi as the commander of the PMF due to the disagreements with some Shia parties. Iraqi media sources indicated that the agreement to appoint Al-Muhammadawi was made through a committee that included 6 figures affiliated with the PMF under the direct supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Abdulaziz Al-Muhammadawi is considered the number-one figure in Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq. He used to be a close associate of the commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Al-Muhammadawi worked with the Badr Organization in 1983 and was assigned intelligence duties for the organization as an assistant to Hadi Al-Amiri. Al-Muhammadawi has more than one nick name to ensure the greatest secrecy and mystery of his movements and connections, and these names are Abu Fadak, Abu Hamid, and Al-Khal (the uncle).  One of his former militia members mentioned that Muhammadawi’s nickname was “Abu Hamid” during his command of battalions’ operations in Jurf Al-Sakhr, south of Baghdad. The media source added that Al-Muhammadawi’s headquarter was very large and overlooked a prison for Hezbollah. Most of the interrogations and torturing of the detainees happened under his supervision. Al-Muhammadawi moved after the end of the battle in Jurf Al-Sakhr to Baiji, north of Baghdad and settled in the Al-Mazraea area.  He was involved in numerous war crimes in Fallujah, Tikrit, Hawija, and Jurf Al-Sakhr. The media sources indicate that Al-Muhammaddawi participated in the fighting in Syria alongside the regime of Bashar Al-Assad and that he carried out many war crimes in the town of Qusayr in Homs countryside, as well as in the towns of Aleppo countryside.

The thought that these terrorists and murderers, such as al-Muhammadawi, hold stems from loyalty, but this loyalty is not to the homeland or nationalism, but to the doctrine of the absent Imam Mahdi and the deputy of the Wali al-Faqih, who is at the helm of power in Iran. This is what prompted the idea of enforcing the divine decrees that the Mahdi must be present at his appearance (according to what they claim). Al-Muhammadawi and others became convinced that it had to be implemented even if it was before the arrival of the awaited Mahdi, and this reality launched the legitimacy of Muhammadawi’s new powers, which was reflected in its clear form after the fall of Saddam’s oppressive regime, where this ideology was and still is the engine and pole that unleashed Muhammadawi and all the militias and state parties affiliated with Iran.

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