US drone strike in Baghdad kills Iranian-backed militia commander: officials
A US drone strike in Iraq’s capital killed three members of the Kataib Hezbollah militia group on Wednesday night, including a high-ranking commander, officials said.
The strike — part of a US retaliatory attack over a drone assault that killed three American soldiers in Jordan last month — struck a car in Baghdad located in the Mashtal neighborhood.
One of the three militants killed in the strike was identified as Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria, according to two officials in the Iran-backed militia group.
Emergency response teams were deployed to the Iraqi neighborhood following the strike to pick up the wreckage, with images of the scene showing crowds huddled around a burnt and hollowed car.
No other deaths or injuries were reported.
US officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the strike was intended to take out a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander.
US Central Command said the strike in Baghdad added that the strike killed “a Kata’ib Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”
Al-Saadi would have been in charge when the American base was hit by the deadly drone strike near the Syrian border, where the US had worked with allied forces to fight off Islamic State militants.
Officials pointed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, as the perpetrators of the attack in Jordan, with Kataib Hezbollah accused of leading the assault.
The US has since vowed retaliation against Iran-backed militias in the region, launching air assaults on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria in recent days aimed at the groups and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has repeatedly claimed strikes on bases in the Middle East housing US troops, saying the attacks are in response to America’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The coalition most recently claimed responsibility for a drone strike in eastern Syria that killed six fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group allied with the United States.
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 was suspending its attacks on American troops following the strike 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 Iran-backed terror groups who continue 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 imperative for America and its allies to restore stability to the region.
To that end, Blinken said he will continue to work on a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, which was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Blinken added that he was still pushing for a two-state solution once the war in Gaza concludes, a condition Saudi Arabia said must be met for it to participate in quelling 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 take out the terror groups. “But we will defend our people, and our assets.
With Post wires