Close to Iran's Quds Force
Earlier this month, Gen. Ray Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq, described Mohandas as the right-hand man to Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of the Quds Force, the covert arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
A Treasury Department statement said Mohandas had employed instructors from Lebanon-based Hezbollah to train Shiite militias, including members of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army, to attack U.S. and coalition troops. It alleged that Mohandas ran networks that moved munitions — including mortars, Katyusha rockets and sophisticated roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators — from Iran into Sadr City, a Shiite militant stronghold in Baghdad.
"He's in Iran for a very good reason, which is ... if he ever set foot in Iraq and we knew it, we would have grabbed him in a heartbeat," said a former senior U.S. official with knowledge of the case against Mohandas, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"He was directly implicated in attacks on Americans. I found the evidence to be totally compelling," the official added.
