U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iraqi Militia Leaders and Ex-Governors

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is imposing economic sanctions on two former provincial governors and two militia leaders in Iraq, it announced on Thursday, citing human rights abuses in the north of the country.

American officials had determined that three of the four Iraqis were involved in acts of corruption, extortion and intimidation in Nineveh Province, which has minority populations of Christians and Yazidis and was an Islamic State stronghold before the group’s territorial defeat.

The Treasury Department said it was imposing the sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the executive branch to use economic penalties to punish officials of other nations for human rights violations.

“We will continue to hold accountable persons associated with serious human rights abuse, including persecution of religious minorities, and corrupt officials who exploit their positions of public trust to line their pockets and hoard power at the expense of their citizens,” said Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The two militia leaders are Rayan al-Kildani, the head of the 50th Brigade, and Waad Qado, the head of the 30th Brigade. Both of the militias fought the Islamic State and fall under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces, armed groups that are recognized and paid by the Iraqi government. Baghdad did not immediately react to the sanctions.

This spring, some senior officials in the Trump administration were considering designating groups in the Popular Mobilization Forces as foreign terrorist organizations, in an effort to punish militias in the Middle East that have ties to Iran. Such a designation would have led to harsh economic penalties against the groups.

To an extent, the sanctions imposed on Thursday are related to the administration’s broad campaign to isolate Iran. One of the targets, Ahmed al-Jubouri, the former governor of Salahuddin Province, worked with “Iran-backed proxies that operate outside of state control,” the Treasury Department said.

The Iranian military supported some of the Iraqi militias that formed to fight the Islamic State. Many of the ones with ties to Iran are dominated by Shiites, since it is a predominantly Shiite Muslim nation.

The 30th Brigade has its roots in an armed group formed by the ethnic Shabak minority. The 50th Brigade is based on a Christian militia, but some analysts say its fighters mostly come from the Sadr City area of Baghdad, which is Shiite.

The “30th and 50th Brigades do not want to follow orders from the Iraqi prime minister, and nor do they want to give up lucrative moneymaking opportunities and Mafiosi-like power at the local level,” Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has done research in Nineveh, wrote this month.

Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, praised the move by the United States, saying her group had documented widespread abuses in recent years by the Popular Mobilization Forces and the Iraqi Federal Police. The 30th Brigade was among the groups that had carried out abuses, she said.

“One of our persistent recommendations, not just to the U.S. government but also to the Iraqi government, is that they need to clean their own house,” she said. “Evidence of the abuses has been pervasive for the last several years.”

“This is a very good step,” she added.

Nawfal Hammadi al-Sultan was the governor of Nineveh Province when the sinking of an overloaded ferry in Mosul in March resulted in the deaths of about 100 people. Mr. al-Sultan fled, and the Iraqi Parliament issued a warrant for his arrest. He had a history of corrupt practices.

Mr. al-Jubouri, the former governor of Salahuddin Province who American officials say has ties to Iranian-backed militias, was sentenced to prison in July 2017 after being convicted on corruption charges. He has since been released.

Trump administration officials “want to raise the cost to the Iraqi government of working with Iranian-aligned actors and force it to choose between the United States and Iran,” said Andrew Miller, the deputy director for policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy. “Amidst the nuance and complexity of Iraq, such an approach is likely to backfire.”

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