BREAKING NEWS

US blacklists Iraqi militia leader connected to deadly anti-govt protests

WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an Iraqi militia leader and former national security adviser, connecting him to human rights abuses during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations in which hundreds of protesters were killed.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement it was blacklisting Falih al-Fayyadh, chairman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC).
The Treasury accused him of being part of a crisis cell formed in late 2019 to suppress protests with the support of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is blacklisted by the United States.
Washington said al-Fayyadh was the head of the PMC when forces under its command fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in 2019, resulting in hundreds of deaths.