US sanctions Iran-backed militias under weapons transfer ban

Al-Monitor Staff

Aug 9, 2021

confiscated hezbollah rocket launcher in Lebanon — Lebanese soldiers stand near a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher after confiscating it, in the southern village of Shouayya, on Aug. 6, 2021. Lebanon's Hezbollah fired more than 10 rockets into Israel, prompting retaliatory shelling, in a major escalation between the Iran-backed Shiite movement and the Jewish state. Villagers from a Druze town in the south Lebanon district of Hasbaya stopped a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher used in the attack, a military source told AFP, adding the army had confiscated the launcher. — MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images

The US State Department issued a notice Monday of new sanctions against major Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq for violations of a US law that restricts weapons transfers involving Iran, Syria and North Korea.

The sanctions target Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Lebanese Hezbollah, all three of which receive backing from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).