US puts sanctions on Iraq group, Iran adviser

The United States imposed financial sanctions Thursday on an adviser to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Iraq-based Shia group Kata'ib Hezbollah, branded a foreign terrorist outfit. The US Treasury Department said it froze the assets of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to the commander of Iran's Qods Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Shiite "extremist" group Kata'ib Hezbollah for being a security threat in Iraq.
Al-Muhandis was identified also with 19 aliases. The IRGC was accused of providing material support to various militant groups - Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command.
Further, the IRGC-Qods Force provided "lethal support to Kata'ib Hezbollah and other Iraqi Shia militia groups who target and kill" US or Coalition troops and Iraqi security forces, a Treasury statement said. The IRGC-Qods Force was named a "specially designated global terrorist" group by the Treasury Department in 2007.