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Obama hosted US embassy attack leader as part of Iraq PM's entourage in White House eight years ago

The US embassy attack leader, identified as Hadi al Amiri, was the minister of transport in the then Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet; later he became Tehran's "point man" in Iraq.

BY NAMRATA TRIPATHI

UPDATED JAN 2, 2020

Former President Barack Obama, eight years ago, had welcomed Iraq's then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the White House, and the leader of an Iran-backed militia which laid siege to the US embassy in Baghdad recently was among the latter's entourage, reports state. The US embassy attack leader, identified as Hadi al Amiri, later became Tehran's "point man" in Iraq.

Reports state that Amiri was al-Maliki's minister of transport when he stood in the Oval Office in December 2011. Amiri, on Tuesday, led the charge against the US embassy in Baghdad as supporters of the pro-Iran militia stormed and set some parts of it on fire.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki (L)speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House November 1, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

A photograph of Amiri being spotted amid the rioters was shared by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who condemned him as an "Iranian proxy," and called those who walked with him "terrorists." Amiri has reportedly been accused of terrorism against the US, and of assisting Iran to ship arms to Bashar al-Assad in Syria. He was also photographed bowing before the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Daily Mail.

Amiri's men had reportedly assisted the US in their fight against ISIS in 2014 and 2015. However, a recent spate of missile attacks by the Kataeb Hezbollah branch of the Iraq's government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) has suggested that the American allies in the region can soon become enemies. The missile attack ended in the death of an American contractor at the US base north of Baghdad.

(R-L) Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, Iraqi politicians Mahdi al-Hafidh, Hadi al-Amiri and Head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq party Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim are seen during a meeting with Iraqi political leaders at Talabani?s residence on March 24, 2006. (Getty)

President Donald Trump, after the attack, had ordered USAF jets to decimate Kataeb Hezbollah bases, resulting in the death of 24 people on Sunday night. Amiri, 65, reportedly joined the thousands who flocked to funerals for the fighters in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, and led the crowds who stormed through the heavily fortified Green Zone and breached the US embassy.

Amiri, a former commander of the Badr Corps, was well known to the Pentagon as the corps had received funding, training and arms from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was designated as a terrorist group by Trump in 2019.