The United States said it was offering up to $10 million for information that would lead to the arrest of Sheik Mohammad al-Kawtharani, a senior leader of the Islamist group Hezbollah in Iraq who was a collaborator of the late Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Disclosing the reward, the U.S. State Department said Kawtharani had taken over some of the political activities of "Iran-aligned paramilitary groups" once led by Soleimani, a leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
A US drone strike on January 3 killed Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, Quds Force commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha'abi, and a host of others, targeting their vehicle in Baghdad. During the time of the attack, at the behest of Baghdad, General Soleimani was on an official voyage to the Iraqi capital.
Hours after the U.S. drone attack, Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyed Hassan Nasrallah said resistance movements worldwide were responsible for punishing those behind the killing of General Soleimani. It will be the duty and mission of all resistance fighters worldwide to carry out just punishment to these criminals, Nasrallah said.
In his capacity, Kawtharani facilitates the actions of organizations that operate outside the jurisdiction of the Iraqi government that has violently clamped down on demonstrations, launched attacks on international diplomatic delegations, and engaged in a broad spectrum of organized crimes, the State Department said.
As a member of the Hezbollah Political Council, Kawtharani has collaborated to promote Hezbollah interests in Iraq, including its efforts to train, finance, provide political advice, and logistics to the Iraqi Shia rebel groups, US authorities said.
The State Department said it was offering the amount for information about the operations, networks and associates of Kawtharani as part of an attempt to undermine Lebanese-based Hezbollah's "political mechanisms."
Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based Shia Muslim political party and militant organization. The paramilitary wing of Hezbollah is the Council of Jihad and its political wing is the group Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in the Lebanese Parliament.
In 2013, Kawtharani was branded by the United States as a global terrorist, accused of supporting armed groups in Iraq and helping to transport Iraqi fighters to Syria to support the efforts of President Bashar al-Assad to bring down an uprising against his rule.
Iraqi sources told Middle East Eye in January that after Soleimani's assassination Iran had tasked Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with coordinating and uniting Iraqi paramilitary groups.
Kawtharani, a member of the Hezbollah political council, was in charge of the Iraqi affairs of the party for several years. He was present at a meeting between Nasrallah and the former vice president of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki in 2014.
