Qais Khazali

Qais Hadi Sayed Hasan al-Khazali is best known as the founder and leader of the Special Groups in Iraq from June 2006 until his capture by British forces in March 2007. As head of the Special Groups, Khazali directed arms smuggling, formation of death squads to participate in sectarian violence, kidnappings, and assassinations, most notably the 20 January 2007 attack on American forces in Karbala. A former follower of Muqtada al-Sadr, he was expelled from the Mahdi Army in 2004 for giving "unauthorized orders" and founded his own group: Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) also known as the "Khazali network" that was later designated as a terrorist group by the USA government. During his incarceration Akram al-Kaabi became acting commander of the organisation until his release.