Hadi al-Amiri
Hadi al-Amiri is an Iraqi politician and militia leader who has headed the Badr Organization, a Shia political party and paramilitary organization, since 2009. He served as Minister of Transport from 2010 to 2014 and has represented Diyala Governorate in the Council of Representatives since 2014. Al-Amiri founded the Fatah Alliance in 2018, which has become one of the main Shia political blocs in Iraq.
Biography
As a young man, Hadi al-Ameri was part of the struggle against the Saddam Hussein regime. During the Iran-Iraq war, he took refuge in Iran and stayed there until the fall of Saddam Hussein. There he participated in the founding of the Badr Organization|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.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. However, he has proclaimed his affection for Qasem Soleimani, the late 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 ISIL. He has been described as "perhaps the most powerful and pro-Iranian" leader in the Popular Mobilization Forces and often met Brett H. McGurk, President Donald J. Trump's US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He is fluent in Persian.
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 Saddam Hussein.
On 31 December 2019, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Qais Khazali, and Falih Al-Fayyadh, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed him to be 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 Qasem Soleimani and Muhandis, Amiri was seen as a candidate to replace Muhandis as a leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi coalition of militias which fought against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group.