PMF Leaders Acknowledge Difficulty after US Sanctions

PMF members march during the funeral Asaib Ahl al-Haq members, who were killed when protesters attacked the group's office during anti-government rallies, in Baghdad, October 26, 2019. (Reuters)
PMF members march during the funeral Asaib Ahl al-Haq members, who were killed when protesters attacked the group's office during anti-government rallies, in Baghdad, October 26, 2019. (Reuters)
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PMF Leaders Acknowledge Difficulty after US Sanctions

PMF members march during the funeral Asaib Ahl al-Haq members, who were killed when protesters attacked the group's office during anti-government rallies, in Baghdad, October 26, 2019. (Reuters)
PMF members march during the funeral Asaib Ahl al-Haq members, who were killed when protesters attacked the group's office during anti-government rallies, in Baghdad, October 26, 2019. (Reuters)

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) condemned the US Treasury’s decision to blacklist a number of its leaders.

These leaders included Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Iran-backed militia and his brother Laith al-Khazali, another leader of the group, according to a statement from the US Treasury Department.

They also target Hussein Falih al-Lami, security chief for the PMF, Iraq’s state umbrella group of paramilitary factions, which is dominated by groups backed by Iran, including Asaib.

An offshoot PMF coalition released a statement saying that the group is being subject to pressure to step down from certain “goals and rights.”

“We strongly condemn the US Treasury’s decision to impose so-called sanctions on a group of PMF leaders and symbols of Islamic resistance,” the statement said.

“This decision does not affect the resistance project and its ability to confront the arrogant scheme, whose features have begun to become clear in chaos, desolation and destruction,” it added in reference to Iraq’s anti-government protests.

It also reaffirmed that the “Islamic resistance” faces enormous pressure to give up protecting social freedoms from “foreign schemes,” and that protecting the resistance is a “duty no less sacred than protecting borders and the sovereignty of the homeland.”

The Treasury Department said in its statement that groups led by the three paramilitary leaders “opened fire on peaceful protests, killing dozens of innocent civilians.”

Iraqi paramilitary groups deny any role in the deaths of protesters, who have demonstrated against the government for more than two months. Security forces have killed more than 400 mostly unarmed protesters, police and medics say.

The new sanctions also targeted Iraqi businessman Khamis al-Khanjar for alleged corruption, the statement said.



Türkiye Says Over 273,000 Syrian Refugees Have Returned Home

FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
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Türkiye Says Over 273,000 Syrian Refugees Have Returned Home

FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

More than 273,000 Syrians who fled their country's civil war to neighboring Türkiye have returned home since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad in December, Türkiye's vice-president said Friday.

"The number of people who have voluntarily returned to Syria since December 8, 2024 has exceeded 273,000," Cevdet Yilmaz was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.

Some 2.7 million Syrian refugees are still in Türkiye, according to interior ministry figures released in May.

The Turkish government, which supports Syria's new rulers, is hoping to accelerate the return of refugees to ease tensions generated by their presence in parts of the country.