Mawlawi Abdul Samad Farooq (also identified as Farooqi) is a veteran of the Taliban's military commission who currently holds the position of Deputy Commander of the 215 Azm Military Corps in Helmand province. During the Taliban's insurgency, he played a central role in providing IEDs and recruiting suicide bombers in support of the Taliban's military operations. In October 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Abdul Samad Farooq for his close tie to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps - Quds Force (IRGC-QF). He is also on the United Nations' sanctions list under the designation TAi.160. During the Taliban's insurgency, Abdul Samad Farooq served as the Taliban’s deputy shadow governor for western Herat province (as of 2018) and was reportedly among the Taliban officials who "maintained a relationship with IRGC-QF officials based in Birjand [Iran]" for "weapons and military" supplies for the Taliban. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, "he visited a training camp in Birjand, where the IRGC was training Taliban fighters to attack a proposed pipeline that would run through Afghanistan." He reportedly "received funds from the IRGC through a hawala in Herat in 2017." Additionally, he "received thousands of kilograms of explosives from the IRGC that he planned to distribute to Taliban commanders throughout Herat province, as of 2018."
