Badge of honor for Iraqi PMU chief to be put on US sanctions list: Bahraini opposition

  The February 14 Youth Coalition —named after the date of the beginning of a popular uprising against Bahrain’s ruling Al Khalifah regime, in a statement on Sunday slammed the sanctions against Falih al-Fayyadh as cowardly, and said the move represents an attack on Iraq's sovereignty, national security, as well as its people.     “The current US administration [led by President Donald Trump] knows that Fayyadh is one of the national Iraqi leaders, who protected the Iraqi nation against US and Takfiri terrorism represented by Daesh and its collaborators. He was among those who thwarted Trump's failed scheme in Iraq and the region,” the statement added. The February 14 Youth Coalition further noted that recent US sanctions on the PMU chairman denotes the fall of Trump, his Republican party as well as their defeated regional allies. He, however, added that the sanctions represent a badge of pride for Fayyadh, all PMU leaders and members in addition to the Iraqi Armed Forces. The Bahraini opposition movement underlined that no future administration at the White House can discourage Fayyadh from continuing his struggle against the US occupation of Iraq, reiterating his solidarity with him and Iraqi people. The US Treasury Department said in a statement on January 8 it had blacklisted 64-year-old Fayyadh, accusing him of being responsible for a crackdown by security forces on anti-government demonstrations that gripped the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and later swept through several other cities in late 2019. The rallies erupted as a result of public anger at corruption, mass unemployment and failing public services. Reports say some 550 people were killed and 30,000 injured as the anti-government rallies took a violent turn.