In accordance with paragraph 13 of resolution 1822 (2008) and subsequent related resolutions, the ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee makes accessible a narrative summary of reasons for the listing for individuals, groups, undertakings and entities included in the ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List.
Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil was listed on 22 February 2017 pursuant to paragraphs 3 and 5 of resolution 2253 (2015) as being associated with ISIL or Al-Qaida for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to” and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant (QDe.137).
As of March 2016, the overall leader of Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant (QDe.137) Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani (QDi.317) had appointed Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil as the group’s new emir for the coastal area of the Syrian Arab Republic. Khalil was previously Al-Nusrah Front’s leader in Dar'a, Syrian Arab Republic.
Under Khalil’s rule, Al-Nusrah Front empowered security and intelligence operatives responsible for assassinations. Prisons run by Khalil were notorious for their torture, and Khalil encouraged looting of the vehicles and possessions of Free Syrian Army members.
As of late 2015, Khalil, previously one of Al-Nusrah Front’s most senior figures in southern Syrian Arab Republic, was transferred to Idlib, Syrian Arab Republic, to take part in discussions among Al-Nusrah Front senior leadership regarding the group’s overall strategy and the feasibility of establishing a so-called “emirate” in Idlib. Khalil previously had gained notoriety in southern Syrian Arab Republic for having led a covert assassination campaign against opposition figures who resisted Al-Nusrah Front’s influence, and his arrival in northern Syrian Arab Republic was widely interpreted as a sign that Al-Nusrah Front was preparing for similar targeted attacks against any detractors of its emirate plans.
As of April 2015, Khalil was the emir for Al-Nusrah Front’s wing in Dar'a, Syrian Arab Republic, and maintained firm authority over the group’s activities in the region. In 2011, Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai (QDi.299), the leader of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) listed as Al-Qaida in Iraq (QDe.115), dispatched Khalil and six others to the Syrian Arab Republic to establish what eventually would become Al-Nusrah Front.
As of early January 2015, Khalil was accused of leading an interrogation group that tortured to death a detainee at an Al-Nusrah Front prison.
Khalil left Jordan to join Al-Qaida in Iraq in the mid-2000s, and was close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (deceased) until his death in 2006.