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Mohammed Baqer al-Saadi, Kata'ib Hezbollah commander, flanked by heavily blurred federal agents and tactical officers, is led down the steps of a chartered US government transport aircraft following his capture. Photo: US District Court for the Southern District of New York/AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A powerful Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, Kata’ib Hezbollah, on Monday denied links to Mohammad Baqer al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior commander of the faction, who was detained in Turkey and transferred into US custody to face trial on “mass global terrorism” charges.
“The abductee, Mohammad Baqer al-Saadi, is not a member of Kata’ib Hezbollah and will return to his homeland with his head held high, as he is among the supporters and lovers of the [Tehran-led ‘Axis of] Resistance,” said Abu Mujahed al-Asaf, a senior commander and spokesperson for the group, in a statement shared on his official Telegram channel.
Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced on Friday the arrest of Saadi, accusing him of acting on behalf of Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to perpetrate acts of “mass global terrorism.”
The 32-year-old Iraqi national was arrested in Turkey and appeared on Friday in Manhattan federal court, where he was ordered detained and is scheduled to appear again on May 29.
In an indirect signal to the US and Israel, the Kata’ib Hezbollah spokesperson further noted that the “enemy” is aiming at a “new escalation” against the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which comprise Iran-aligned armed groups.
Asaf cited an alleged reconnaissance operation by Washington and Tel Aviv from Jordan, while vowing that the response to “American” actions “will be across various fields,” warning that “the patience of the men of the Resistance is no longer unending in the face of the continued violations and transgressions that target the sovereignty of Iraq and its sons,” he added.
The PMF was established in 2014 during the Islamic State group (ISIS) blitz, which saw the group seize control of large parts of Iraq’s north and west.
Created in response to a fatwa, a religious edict, by Iraq’s highest Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the PMF was initially an umbrella organization of roughly 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups, with approximately 250,000 members.
While the PMF is a state‑funded institution, it includes factions widely believed to overlap with Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ and, following the outbreak of the Iran war, have engaged in military operations in support of Tehran, operating through shadow groups under the banner of the IRI.
Meanwhile, the IRI emerged in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, with the core overlap with the PMF including Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.
In early April, the IRI claimed it carried out 753 attacks against alleged US targets in Iraq and the region since the onset of the six-week Iran war on February 28.
Prior to Saadi’s arrest, the US had in recent months announced a series of rewards for information on commanders of influential Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups, accused of carrying out attacks on American interests in Iraq and the wider region.
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