by Ross Ibbetson, Daily Mail:

• Hadi al Amiri joined Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki when he met President Obama in Oval Office in December 2011


• On Tuesday, he was outside the US embassy in Baghdad when it was breached and set alight by Iran-backed members of Kataeb Hezbollah, and other militia of the government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces


• Lawmakers and a former FBI director had been outraged by Amiri’s presence in the White House in 2011


• He is head of the Badr Corps, an Iranian vassal, which despite fighting alongside the US against ISIS in 2014 and 2015, has received funding and arms form Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard – a designated terror group


• Amiri is accused of engaging in terrorism against the US as well as helping Iran ship arms to Bashar al-Assad

he leader of an Iran-backed US embassy siege in Baghdad was welcomed to the White House by Barack Obama eight years ago before becoming Tehran’s ‘point man’ in Iraq.

Hadi al-Amiri was Iraq‘s minister of transport under then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and stood in the Oval Office as part of Maliki’s delegation on a visit to the White House in December 2011.

On Tuesday, al-Amiri was among those leading the charge against the US embassy in Baghdad when it was stormed and set alight by pro-Iran militants. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shared a photograph of Amiri amid the rioters, condemning him as an ‘Iranian proxy,’ and calling those shoulder-to-shoulder with him ‘terrorists.’

The head of a leading pro-Iran Shia faction, Amiri exerts great power within Iraq’s state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and was highlighted by Pompeo among three other men as the ringleaders of the siege.

The ease with which Amiri and these other commanders breezed through the heavily fortified ‘Green Zone’ has alarmed US officials, who have noted their militia’s increased presence around diplomatic buildings in recent weeks.

A former guerrilla fighter who fought for Tehran in the Iran-Iraq War, Amiri has been accused of terrorism against the US, of helping Iran to ship arms to Bashar al-Assad in Syria and has been pictured bowing before the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As Commander of the Badr Corps, an Iranian vassal within the PMF, Amiri’s men helped the US in their fight against ISIS in 2014 and 2015. But a recent spate of missile attacks by the Kataeb Hezbollah branch of the PMF, climaxing last Friday with the death of an American contractor at US base north of Baghdad, has revealed that Washington’s friends in the region can soon become enemies.

President Donald Trump ordered USAF jets to decimate Kataeb Hezbollah bases and 25 were killed on Sunday night. Amiri joined thousands who flocked to funerals for the fighters in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday and then spearheaded the crowds who rushed through the Green Zone and breached the US embassy.

The 65-year-old, who was of ‘grave concern’ to lawmakers as Obama’s guest in 2011, stood at the forefront of riots which prompted Donald Trump to deploy 750 Army paratroopers on Wednesday, with another 4,000 on standby.

Scroll down for video.

President Obama sitting alongside Iraq’s then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Oval Office of the White House in December 2011. Hadi al Amiri, who led a pro-Iran siege on the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday stands behind the sofa wearing a blue tie as part of Maliki’s delegation

Hadi Al-Ameri Commander of Badr Corps and Sheikh Qais al-Khazali (white turban) in front of US Embassy on Tuesday. The top brass of the pro-Iran militia, referred to by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as an Iran ‘proxy’ and a ‘terrorist’ respectively.’ Khazali was captured by the SAS in 2006 before he was released in an exchange deal in 2010.

Kissing the ring: Hadi al Amiri bows before Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and kisses his hand. Amiri, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War, has never made a secret of his allegiance to Tehran

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