UAE blacklists Iranian-backed Iraqi terror groups

                   

The United Arab Emirates has blacklisted 83 organisations as terrorists under a new law which will impose death sentences and fines of $27 million for any group it believes is attempting 'destabilize the Arab world'.

The list, published by the country’s state-run WAM news agency, includes the Iraq-based Badr organisation, Asaib al-Haq, as well as Al-Qaeda-linked groups operating in different parts of the region.

The UAE is a fierce critic of the Iranian regime for using proxies among Shia movements to destabilize the Arab world.

The move by the UAE follows a similar step taken by Saudi Arabia in March.

The Badr Organization, previously known as the Badr Brigades or Badr Corps, was created in Iran in 1982 by the Iranian regime's Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC).

It is commanded by Hadi al-Ameri, former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's Transportation Minister, who receives his orders from IRGC's terrorist Quds Force.

When Ameri visits Tehran, he meets Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to express his 'full obedience' to Khamenei as his subservient.

Members of the Badr Organization are known to have been abducting and murdering Sunni youth in Iraq's Diyala Province.

Asaib al-Haq - another group on the UAE terror blacklist - is headed by Qais Al Khazali as is one of the most aggressive para-military groups in Iraq.

The group's representative in Iran said in an interview on Sunday that they has launched around 5,000 military operations against coalition forces in Iraq between 2004-2011.

He also claimed responsibility for the missile attack on the US embassy in Iraq in 2011 as American forces were living Iraq.

He described the group as the same as Badr Organization and Kataeb Hezbollah, and added: "The different names should not cause any mislead the enemy into believing there are any divisions between them."

Amnesty International said in a report on October 14: "Shi’a militias, supported and armed by the government of Iraq, have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months and enjoy total impunity for these war crimes."

The report entitled 'Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq' provides harrowing details of sectarian attacks carried out by increasingly powerful Shi’a militias.

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser, added: "By granting its blessing to militias who routinely commit such abhorrent abuses, the Iraqi government is sanctioning war crimes and fuelling a dangerous cycle of sectarian violence that is tearing the country apart. Iraqi government support for militia rule must end now.

"The fate of many of those abducted by Shi'a militias weeks and months ago remains unknown. Some captives were killed even after their families had paid ransoms of $80,000 and more to secure their release."