Rayan al-Kildani

Rayan Salem Sadiq Al-Kildani (Arabic: ريان سالم صادق الكلداني) known as Rayan al-Kildani (Arabic: ريان الكلداني, lit. 'Rayan the Chaldean') is an ethnic Assyrian politician from Iraq. He is currently serving as the general secretary of the Babylon Movement, as well as its military component, the Babylon Brigade. He rose to power after founding the party in 2014, which had initially been involved in defending the Nineveh Plains from ISIS when they were at their most active.

Rayan al-Kildani ريان الكلداني
Rayan delivering a speech, 2022
Personal details
Born	(1989-09-03) 3 September 1989 Alqosh, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq
Political party	Babylon Movement

Al-Kildani has received a multitude of scrutiny for the Babylon Brigade and its role in human rights violations. Videos of Rayan cutting of a prisoners ear have surfaced, and his movement has been known to loot homes in Assyrian villages such as Bartella. On July 18, 2019, United States vice president Mike Pence announced the imposition of sanctions on al-Kildani on the basis of the Magnitsky Act, acknowledging his ties to the Popular Mobilization Forces and Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

Biography

Rayan was born to a family of Chaldean Catholics in 1989 in the town of Alqosh, in the Nineveh Governorate. At some point, he moved to Baghdad and remained settled in Sadr City, where he eventually assimilated into the majority Shia Muslim community. During the US invasion of Iraq, he left school and took up arms with the Mahdi Army, who was known for their attacks on US troops. It is said that he converted to Islam in order to marry into his wife's family, under Article 63 of the Constitution of Iraq.

Rayan began his political experience in June 2014, when he founded the Babylon Brigades to defend the Nineveh Plains against ISIS. At the time, his movement had been the only Christian militia in the whole of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which is predominantly Shiite Muslim. Kildani presented his movement as fighting for the existence of his once-important community, citing religious harmony between Christians and Muslims in the country. At the time of its founding, the militia had a strong-hold of about 1000 fighters.

In 2017, Rayan was involved with Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Assyrian from Qaraqosh who had founded a militia called the 'Syriac Democratic Forces'. Rayan eventually won this struggle, causing Momika to flee Iraq altogether for Sweden.

In 2019, the United States formally sanctioned Rayan, as well as leader of the Shabak Militia Waad Qado, citing human rights violations and his connection to the Popular Mobilization Forces. Additional reasons for the sanction included systematic looting of villages and selling of agricultural land, blackmailing and harassing women, and preventing internally displaced persons from returning to their homes in the Nineveh Plains. In response to the sanctions, the Iraqi Central Bank froze his assets after an official bank order.

Modern political activities

In the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary election, Rayan and the Babylon Movement obtained 4 of the 5 seats reserved for Iraqi Christians out of the 329 seats in the Iraqi Parliament. However, the validity of the elections of these seats have been called into question, with former Assyrian MP Joseph Sliwa claiming that 90% of the votes for the organization weren't from Christians. Following elections in 2023 yielded similar results for Rayan, which have led to speculations of vote-buying and bypassing election loopholes to subdue proper Assyrian and Christian representation.

That same year, in 2021, he was invited to meet with Lebanese president Michel Aoun, emphasizing the role of Christians across West Asia and ensuring demographic returns to Iraq.

In 2022, Rayan met with Hoshyar Zebari of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to discuss the situation of Iraqi Christians and to have a mutual dialogue between political parties. That same year, he met with Prime Minister of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, Masrour Barzani, on the future of Iraq. He was also received by Massoud Barzani during the same meeting.

In 2023, Rayan met with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Iraq. Guterres was subsequently faced with criticism after a photo of the pair, as well as Qais Khazali, surfaced online.

Rayan is allied with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Kataeb Hezbollah and an affiliate of the Popular Mobilization Forces, and has previously been seen pictured with him. He continues to lead the Babylon Brigade alongside his brother, Osama; despite Iraqi government orders to evacuate the Nineveh Plains, Rayan has so far refused to do so. It is speculated that Rayan continues to lead the Brigade for his own personal interests, given the land seizures and looting in the Nineveh Plains.

In July 2024, Rayan instigated a mass change of political leaders in the Nineveh Plains that had been chosen by the Nineveh Provincial Council. The changes impacted the villages of Bakhdida, Bartella, and Tel Keppe, as well as the Yezidi-majority Sinjar. Afterwards he took credit for the changes, saying on Alawla TV "but today we have restored rights to the people of Nineveh…".

Relationship with the Chaldean Church and Assyrian Christians

Much of the scrutiny surrounding Rayan revolves around his conflict with the Chaldean Catholic Church, and its current patriarch Louis Raphael Sako. While al-Kildani claims that he and the members of the Babylon Brigade are religiously Christian, this has been disproven as many members are Shia Muslim. Sako has previously condemned al-Kildani as a militia leader who does not represent the interests of Christians, publicly dissociating the Church from the group. In March 2016, the Chaldean Patriarchate announced that it had no connection with the militia or Rayan, that it did not represent it and that its official representatives weren't representative of Assyrians or Christians in Iraq either.

In March 2023, the Babylon Brigade was instigated in the arrests of seven members of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, as they had submitted a petition for the removal of the Babylon Brigade from the Hamdaniya district. In response, protests broke out amongst the Assyrians of Bakhdida, who were able to push out the militia from the district. Rayan had successfully coerced Younan Hanno, archbishop of the Syriac Catholic Church, into allowing his activities in the region.

Rayan has previously engaged in public conflicts with Sako, with allegations from Rayan stating that the Chaldean Church had sold church properties. In July 2023, the feud was brought to light after Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid revoked the presidential decree recognizing the Chaldean Church in the country, where it was alleged that Rayan had a hand in influencing the presidents decision. This caused Sako to leave for Erbil in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, as he called the move "unprecedented in Iraq's history," highlighting "the government's silence" about the incident and the suffering of the Christian community. As a result, protests broke out in Ankawa against the decision and Rayan's movement.

Rayan and his movement have been implicated in causing the Bakhdida wedding fire, an incident which he is believed to have taken advantage of in order to instill further influence in the Hamdaniya district. Earlier that year, he had faked a meeting with Pope Francis at the Holy See, which was additionally clarified by an official spokesperson at the Vatican to be false. Residents refused to let the Babylon Brigade and Rayan enter the sight of the fire, after which he and Babylon-affiliated member Duraid Jamil Esho threatened to attack a church and cause more violence.