Overview

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (born Jamal Jaafar Mohammed Ali al-Ibrahimi) was an Iraqi militia leader who served as the deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF/Hashd al-Shaabi); the umbrella organization of predominantly Shia paramilitary groups in Iraq. He was killed alongside Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport on January 3; 2020; an assassination ordered by President Trump that brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of open war. Al-Muhandis had a long history of militancy aligned with Iranian interests. He was convicted in absentia by a Kuwaiti court for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait; attacks that killed six people. He led Kata'ib Hezbollah; an Iranian-backed militia designated as a terrorist organization by the United States; which was responsible for numerous attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq using Iranian-supplied explosive formed penetrators (EFPs) that killed hundreds of American soldiers. Despite his terrorist designation; al-Muhandis held a senior position in the Iraqi government's official paramilitary structure; illustrating the deep Iranian penetration of Iraqi state institutions. His killing alongside Soleimani was condemned by Iran and Iraqi Shia groups as an act of war; while the Trump administration justified it as a defensive action against an imminent threat.

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1 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports