ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The US on Tuesday announced a reward of up to $10 million for information on Akram al-Kaabi, leader of Iraq’s Iran-backed Harakat al-Nujaba militia group, saying the group has “a long history” of targeting US diplomatic forces in Iraq. 

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program described Kaabi as “the founder and leader” of the Iran-backed group, adding that Kaabi “has a long history of targeting US troops and diplomatic facilities in Iraq,” read a statement on Tuesday. 

The group members “have attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq as well as US military bases in Iraq and Syria, killing a US contractor and wounding US servicemembers,” it added.

The statement said information on Kaabi could be rewarded with up to $10 million.

In mid-April, the US imposed sanctions on seven pro-Iran Iraqi militia commanders from groups in Iraq accused of carrying out attacks against its personnel and interests, with Nujaba being among them.

The US has also announced similar rewards of up to $10 million for Iraq’s Iran-backed Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (HAAA) militia leader Haider al-Gharawi and Abu Alaa al-Walaei, leader of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, another powerful pro-Iran militia.

In late March, Harakat al-Nujaba called on the Iraqi parliament and national forces to cancel the security cooperation with the United States following a series of strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) positions.

The State Department has previously offered lucrative rewards for information relating to pro-Iran factions ever since the US-Israel war with Iran started. 

With the outbreak of the war in late February, pro-Iran groups operating under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US interests in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

Many Iran-backed factions operating within the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have been officially incorporated into the Iraqi state security apparatus as part of the PMF, making Iraq a target for US-Israeli strikes.