Washington DC [US], April 24 : The US State Department is offering a reward of up to USD 10 million for information on Abu Ala al-Walai, the leader of the Iran-aligned Iraqi group Kataib Sayyid ul-Shuhada (KSS), which Washington DC has designated as a terrorist organisation.
The US Department of State's Rewards for Justice program in a social media post on April 23 stated that they were seeking information on Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji also known as Al-Walai.
KSS members have "killed Iraqi civilians and attacked US diplomatic facilities in Iraq, as well as attacking US military bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria," US officials said. The social media post, while soliciting information leading to the identification or location of al-Saraji on the Tor tipline or Signal, stated that informers were "eligible for a relocation and a reward."
Al-Saraji and KSS were previously designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224 in November 2023.
In September 2025, the State Department further designated KSS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), which unlocked additional legal and financial tools, including the ability to offer higher rewards for its leadership.
an Iraqi militia supported by and ideologically aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The non-profit and non-partisan international policy organization the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) describes the KSS as an Iraqi militia supported by and ideologically aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). They have fought in both Iraq and Syria.
KSS expanded its presence in Iraq after ISIS swept through the country in 2014 and the Iraqi militia currently operates as a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The group works closely with other pro-Iran PMF units and its commanders have met personally with Qasem Soleimani, the deceased commander of the Quds Force, the elite IRGC military unit that coordinates Iran's support to its foreign terrorist proxies, the CEP detailed.
Wa'eli has previously announced his support of the Houthi movement and has stated in the past that KSS is a faction of the terror group, according to CEP.
According to an analysis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, since the US-Iran erupted last month, Iraq's militia "resistance" groups, including the Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) through its Saraya Awliya al-Dam brand- are seemingly targeting the Gulf states, especially Kuwait, from launch points in the southern Iraqi provinces of al-Muthanna and Basra.
The KSS along with two other militia groups-the Kataib Hezbollah (KH) and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (HaN) have pounded the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with scores of drones and rockets. "Saraya Awliya al-Dam might even be employing its new guided close-range ballistic missilea weapon with five times the payload of a typical drone and pinpoint accuracy at ranges over 100 kilometers," according to the Washington Institute analysis.
The United States should therefore consider resurrecting the successful approach it used the last time these militias were launching lethal attacks against American forces in early 2024, the Institute said.
"At the time, US forces targeted upper-level militia leaders, including two high-profile strikes in Baghdad: against HaN's Abu Taqwa al-Saaedi (killed January 4, 2024) and KH's Abu Baqr al-Saeedi (February 7, 2024). These strikes stopped a deadly sequence of militia attacks on US personnel," it said.
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