A US drone strike in Baghdad has claimed the life of a senior commander of a militia supported by Iran.
A car carrying a Kataib Hezbollah leader and two of his guards was attacked east of the capital of Iraq. They were all three killed.
According to the Pentagon, the commander was in charge of planning and carrying out assaults against US personnel in the area.
The US has connected the militia to last month’s drone attack in Jordan that claimed the lives of three US soldiers.
Following that assault, Kataib Hezbollah declared that it would stop attacking US forces to save the Iraqi government “embarrassment.”
The drone raid on Wednesday night occurred in the Mashtal neighborhood of Baghdad and resulted in multiple loud explosions.
The car was transformed into a blazing wreck after a precise hit on a moving vehicle in a crowded street.
Senior Kataib Hezbollah commander Abu Baqir al-Saadi has been named as one of the victims.
According to US Central Command (Centcom), the “commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region” was killed in the strike, which took place at 21:30 local time (18:30 GMT).
According to the Centcom statement, “There are no indications of civilian casualties or collateral damage at this time.”
Upon the arrival of a BBC team, large gatherings of demonstrators were heard shouting, “America is the biggest devil.”
Heavy police presence was there, and Iraq’s interior ministry’s Swat squads were also present.
The series of strikes that began last Friday, according to President Joe Biden, was only the start of the US reaction.
The US retaliation is expected to significantly escalate in response to the drone strike in the capital of Iraq. Prior attacks have exclusively struck the border region between Syria and Iraq.
However, it was almost inevitable that the US plan would target the groups’ senior commanders as well as the infrastructure they exploited.
A short time after the strike on Wednesday, the nation’s militias demanded retaliation against the US.
Since the Israel-Gaza conflict started on October 7, American forces have been subjected to almost daily rocket and drone attacks.
The US launched an airstrike against the leader of Harakat al Nujaba, a group also accused of attacking US troops, in Baghdad on January 4.
The United States of America is fighting the terrorist organization Islamic State with some 2,500 soldiers in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria.
