WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2020) The United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group, Aas'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), for carrying out numerous attacks against American troops on orders from Iran, the State Department said on Friday.
According to the statement, AAH is funded and trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force. The designations of the group and its leaders came just hours after the US military, acting on orders from President Donald Trump, killed the Quds commander Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike on the outskirts of Baghdad.
"AAH and its leaders are violent proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Acting on behalf of their masters in Tehran, they use violence and terror to further the Iranian regime's efforts to undermine Iraqi sovereignty," the statement quotes Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as saying.
The State Department described AAH, led by brothers Qays and Laith al-Khazali, as an Iran-backed, militant organization that has claimed responsibility for more than 6,000 attacks against American and coalitions forces since its creation in 2006. It accused the AAH of carrying out "highly sophisticated" operations, including mortar attacks on an American base, the downing of a British helicopter, and an attack on the Karbala provincial headquarters that resulted in the capture and murder of five American soldiers.
In a separate move, Pompeo also designated AAH and both of its leaders as "specially designated global terrorists."
Among other consequences of the designations, all of AAH and the al-Khazali brothers' property and interests in the United States are blocked, and Americans are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them. In addition, it makes it a Federal crime to provide material support to AAH.
