Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (born Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim) was an Iraqi paramilitary commander and key node in Iran's proxy network in Iraq. Born in Basra to an Iraqi father and Iranian mother, he joined the Islamic Dawa Party in 1977 and fled to Iran after Saddam Hussein's 1979 crackdown. During the Iran-Iraq War he worked closely with Iran's IRGC and was involved in the 1983 Kuwait bombings, for which he was sentenced to death in absentia by a Kuwaiti court. He founded and commanded Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, and served as deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF/Hashd al-Sha'abi). He maintained close operational ties with Qasem Soleimani and the IRGC Quds Force. He was killed alongside Soleimani on 3 January 2020 in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.