Qais Khazali

Qais Hadi Sayed Hasan al-Khazali (Arabic: قيس هادي سيد حسن الخزعلي; born 20 June 1974) is an Iraqi politician and militant leader who is the founder and Secretary-General of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, an Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary organization and political party.

[1] As head of the Special Groups, Khazali directed arms shipment, formation of squads to participate in fighting, and insurgent operations, most notably the 20 January 2007 attack on American forces in Karbala.

[3] On the night of 20 March 2007 G squadron of the British SAS raided a house in Basra containing Khazali and arrested him along with his brother and his Lebanese advisor without casualties and gained valuable intelligence.

[6] Since his release, al-Khazali has pivoted from attacking U.S.-led Coalition forces in Iraq to recruiting for pro-Assad Shi'ite militias in Syria.

[7] On 6 December 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Khazali and placed him on the SDN List for "involvement in serious human rights abuse in Iraq,"[8][9] and addressed his role in the violent repression of Iraqi protests beginning in October 2019.