عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

US Designates Iraq’s 'Ansar Allah al-Awfiya' as Terrorist

Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi (X)
Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi (X)
TT
TT

US Designates Iraq’s 'Ansar Allah al-Awfiya' as Terrorist

Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi (X)
Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi (X)

The US Department of State designated an Iraqi faction and its secretary-general, who has political and military influence in the country since his defection from the Sadrist movement in 2013, as terrorist.

“Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (HAAA) is an Iraq-based Iran-aligned militia group and part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI),” the Department said in statement.

The group and its Secretary-General Haydar Muzhir Malak al-Saidi, also known as Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi, were designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, it added.

The statement said Washington remains committed to using all available tools to counter Iran’s support for terrorism and to degrade and disrupt the ability of Iran-backed groups to conduct terrorist attacks.

In response, HAAA issued a statement saying: “We bring to our proud people the news of the unjust designation issued by the Great Satan (America) against Sheikh Haydar al-Saidi and the movement.”

The US designation is “a tacit acknowledgment of their heroic struggle and honorable defense of the rights of oppressed peoples.”

“It is proof that Sheikh Haydar al-Ghrawi and Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya represent symbols of courage and dignity, having faced challenges and sacrifices with faithful hearts and unwavering resolve. Accusing them of terrorism is nothing more than a badge of honor and pride that history will bestow upon them,” it added.

US Ambassador to Iraq, Alina Romanowski, posted on X that the State Department's terrorist designation of reaffirms Washington’s commitment to countering the malign influence of Tehran and the threats posed by Iran-aligned militia groups.

The Washington Institute describes HAAA as one of the top Iraqi proxies for Iran's Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. It said this Sadrist breakaway faction has long garrisoned the Syrian border and killed Iraqi protesters to demonstrate its loyalty.

The United States has escalated in recent weeks its rhetoric against Iraqi factions.

Tracy Jacobson, US President Joe Biden's nominee for ambassador to Iraq, surprised Iraqi officials with unconventional statements about Iranian influence and Tehran-backed militias.

Jacobson warned that Iran “remains a malign actor and a destabilizing influence in the region that threatens to undo all of Iraq’s achievements. We recognize that the primary threat to Iraq’s stability and sovereignty are the Iran-aligned militias.”

Press reports said Washington’s recent change of rhetoric could pave the way for attacks on pro-Iranian militias in the country, despite the Iraqi government's appeasement efforts.

During his visit to Washington last April, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani reassured the US that his government is able to protect US interests, including the embassy in Baghdad.

However, the targeting of US-branded restaurants by Iraqi factions still worries Washington.

- Who is Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya? -

HAAA first appeared in 2013 after a group of armed militias have defected from the Sadrist movement in Iraq.

Since, the group played key political roles, including its alignment with former prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari to participate in the general election in 2014.

In 2018, the group participated in the general election with the Fatah Alliance led by Badr Organization leader Hadi al-Ameri.

According to the Washington Institute, the group has a political entity in Maysan province, south Iraq, where it holds several provincial council seats. It said the group placed fourth in Maysan's 2013 provincial council elections, a showing that allowed its deputy Murtadha Hamood Ali al-Saidi to become head of the council's integrity committee.

Also, the group is one of the top Iraqi proxies for Iran's Quds Force and has killed Iraqi anti-government protesters in November 2019.

On April 4, 2020, HAAA was one of eight resistance groups to threaten attacks against US targets and prime ministerial candidate Adnan al-Zurfi, whom they accused of being “an American agent.”

Also, in early summer 2023, a reliable open-source article reported that Ghrawi was one of a select group of eight resistance leaders to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

The US said on January 28, 2024 that HAAA members were involved in the deadly drone attack that killed three US soldiers near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
TT
TT

Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)

The spokesperson for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza, Mohamed Mansour, said Israel deliberately targeted three photojournalists while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission inside the Netzarim camp, an area located about six kilometers away from Israeli army forces.

Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat that the attack was “a continuation of Israeli pressure on the committee’s work since it began operating, as part of the occupation’s efforts to tighten restrictions on anyone attempting to provide relief work and humanitarian services to the people of Gaza.”

The Israeli army killed three photojournalists on Wednesday who were working as a media team for the Egyptian Relief Committee for Gaza.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the victims were Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat, and Anas Ghneim.

They were carrying out a filming mission using a small drone and cameras to document stages of work at camps that the Egyptian committee is helping to establish.

Mansour stressed that “the targeting of the photographers will only increase the committee’s determination to provide relief services and shelter to the Palestinian people.”

He said the committee would continue its work as usual to be “a genuine support for the people of the Strip, amid extremely complex security conditions.”

Israeli Army Radio reported, citing sources, that Egypt sent an angry message to Israel following the attack in Gaza in which Palestinians working for the Egyptian committee for the reconstruction were killed.

According to the radio report, Egypt expressed its protest that the attack took place outside the boundaries of the so-called yellow line, in an area that does not pose a threat to Israeli forces.

For its part, the Israeli army claimed it had targeted suspects operating a “Hamas-affiliated drone” in central Gaza.

In a statement on Wednesday, the army said: “Following the identification of the drone and due to the threat it posed to the forces, the Israeli army precisely struck the suspects who were operating the drone.”

The army said the details were under review.

Arab World

Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)

Israel launched fresh strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon after raids earlier Wednesday killed two people, the latest violence despite a year-old ceasefire with the group.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes launched raids on buildings in several south Lebanon towns including Qanarit and Kfour, after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to residents identifying sites it intended to strike there.

An AFP photographer was slightly wounded along with two other journalists who were working near the site of a heavy strike in Qanarit.

The Israeli army said it was striking Hezbollah targets in response to the group's "repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings".

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah.

But Israel has criticized the Lebanese army's progress as insufficient and has kept up regular strikes, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure.

Earlier Wednesday, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani, in the Sidon district, killed one person.

An AFP correspondent saw a charred car on a main road with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance.

Later, the ministry said another strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed one person.

Israel said it struck Hezbollah operatives in both areas.

A Lebanese army statement decried the Israeli targeting of "civilian buildings and homes" in a "blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty" and the ceasefire deal.

It also said such attacks "hinder the army's efforts" to complete the disarmament plan.

This month, the army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Most of Wednesday's strikes were north of the river.

More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.

The November 2024 truce sought to end more than a year of hostilities, but Israel accuses Hezbollah of rearming, while the group has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Arab World

Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
TT
TT

Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for suppressing an uprising in the 1980s, has died aged 88, two sources close to the family said Wednesday.

Once a pillar of the Assad family's dynastic rule, Rifaat "died after suffering from influenza for around a week", one source who worked in Syria's presidential palace for over three decades told AFP.

A second source, an ex-officer of Syria's army in the Assad era, confirmed the death, saying Rifaat had moved to the United Arab Emirates after his nephew's government was toppled by opposition factions in December 2024, without specifying if he died there.

Rifaat's role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Hama", referring to the central Syrian city.

His brother Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria at the time, launched the campaign, which government forces carried out under the command of Rifaat, who was the head of the elite "Defense Brigades".

The death toll from 27 days of violence, which took place under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.

Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of a long list of crimes, including ordering "murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions" while an officer in the Syrian army.

He also served as vice president under his brother Hafez but went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France.

He later presented himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.

In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds.

Two years later, he appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, the ruler's wife Asma and other relatives.

Shortly after Bashar's ouster, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.