Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (1 July 1954 – 3 January 2020), born Jamal Jaafar Mohammed Ali Al Ibrahim, was an Iraqi military commander, politician, and the deputy chairman of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Born in Basra, southern Iraq, to an Iraqi father and Iranian mother, he developed strong ties to both countries. He studied engineering in Basra — his nom de guerre "al-Muhandis" means "the Engineer" in Arabic — before becoming involved in Shia political resistance against Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime.

He became a founding member of the Badr Corps in the early 1980s, following Saddam's violent suppression of the Shia uprising. He was convicted in absentia in Kuwait for his alleged role in the 1983 bombings of foreign embassies in Kuwait City and spent decades on Kuwaiti and American wanted lists. He served as an elected member of the Iraqi parliament from 2006 to 2008, representing Diyala Province, but was forced to resign under US pressure. He subsequently became one of the most powerful commanders in the PMF, serving as the de facto deputy to PMF nominal chairman Falih Alfayyadh.

He maintained extremely close ties with Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, and the two men were killed together in the same US drone strike on 3 January 2020 near Baghdad International Airport. The strike, ordered by US President Trump, was intended to assassinate Soleimani; al-Muhandis was killed alongside him. He was designated as a terrorist by the United States Treasury Department in 2009 and by the European Union. His death was mourned deeply across Iraq's Shia community.