ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iran-backed militia leader was killed on Thursday when a bomb planted in his vehicle exploded in Iraq’s southern Maysan province, according to local officials and security sources. The incident also left another militant wounded.
Hussein Ali Miryani, head of the defense and PMF committee in the Maysan provincial council, told Rudaw on Thursday that the leader of Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (HAAA), a brigade of the government-linked Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Uday Muhsin al-Halfi, also known as Sheikh Dhafir al-Halfi, “was killed today in the Dur al-Naft area when a bomb exploded on his vehicle,” adding that another militant from the group was also wounded.
Formed in 2014, HAAA has been accused of threatening and targeting American interests in Iraq and Syria. It was also allegedly involved in kidnapping and killing of protesters during the 2019 Tishreen movement.
In late April, the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program announced a reward of up to $10 million for information on the leader of Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, Haydar Muzhir Ma’lak al-Sa’idi, also known as Haydar al-Gharawi, stating that Gharawi “has attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, as well as U.S. military bases and personnel in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, killing U.S. service members.”
In a statement issued on Thursday, HAAA said the group’s leader had been killed, describing it as the “assassination” of Dhafir al-Halfi, one of its “prominent” figures in southern Iraq’s Maysan province.
The group said al-Halfi was targeted by an improvised explosive device (IED) that was detonated in his vehicle, resulting in his death.
Both HAAA and its leadership have been designated by the US State Department as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) since mid-2024 over their activities as part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq emerged following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, bringing together several Iran-aligned armed factions operating through coordinated or shadow networks, including Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba.