A US drone strike in the Iraqi capital killed three members of the Kataib Hezbollah militia on Wednesday night, including a high-ranking commander, officials said.
The attack – part of a US retaliation for a drone strike that killed three American soldiers in Jordan last month – hit a car in Baghdad located in the Mashtal neighborhood.
One of the three militants killed in the attack was identified as Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Hezbollah’s Kataib operation in Syria, according to two officials in the Iran-backed militia group.
Emergency response teams were deployed to Iraqi neighborhoods following the strike to pick up debris, with images from the scene showing people huddled around a burning, hole-in-one car.
No other deaths or injuries were reported.
US officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the strike was aimed at killing a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander.
Crowds gathered as destroyed vehicles were loaded onto trucks after what security sources said was a deadly drone strike. Reuters
US Central Command said the attack in Baghdad added that the attack killed “a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander who was directly responsible for planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region.”
Al-Saadi will be in charge when the American base is hit by a deadly drone strike near the Syrian border, where the US has been working with allied forces to fight Islamic State militants.
Officials pointed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iranian-backed militias, as the perpetrators of the attack in Jordan, with Kataib Hezbollah accused of leading the attack.
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The US has since vowed revenge against Iran-backed militias in the region, launching airstrikes on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria in recent days aimed at the group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The Islamist movement in Iraq has repeatedly claimed attacks on bases in the Middle East that house US troops, saying the attacks were in response to American support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The coalition recently claimed responsibility for a drone strike in eastern Syria that killed six fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish group allied with the United States.
People watch as a vehicle hit by a drone strike, reportedly killing three people including two leaders of a pro-Iranian group, is driven away in Baghdad. Reuters
While American soldiers were also stationed at the base, no US citizens were reported among the injured.
As the Islamic Resistance continues to fight, Kataib Hezbollah has claimed it is delaying its attack on American forces following the attack in Jordan to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government.”
The battle against the organization comes as tensions continue to rise in Lebanon and Yemen with other Iranian-backed terrorist groups continuing to launch daily attacks in response to the war in Gaza.
During a press briefing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was important for America and its allies to restore stability in the region.
To that end, Blinken said he would continue to work on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Blinken added that he is still pushing for a two-state solution once the war in Gaza ends, a condition Saudi Arabia says must be met to participate in de-escalating the conflict in the region.
“Iran and its proxies continue to escalate and expand the cycle of violence that we all want to break,” Blinken said of the need to eliminate terrorist groups. “But we will defend our people, and our assets.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
