top commander of pro-Iran group killed in US strike in Baghdad

He was in his vehicle when a drone fired several rockets, according to a source within the Interior Ministry. His death was confirmed by the Hezbollah Brigades.

A senior commander of the Hezbollah Brigades, an influential pro-Iran Iraqi armed group, was killed in his vehicle by an American strike on Wednesday February 7 in Baghdad. Washington accused him of being involved in planning attacks targeting its soldiers in the Middle East. This new strike in the Iraqi capital, almost a week after American bombings in Iraq and Syria, comes as Washington has committed to continuing reprisals against pro-Iran armed groups. On January 28, a drone attack killed three American soldiers in the middle of the Jordanian desert, on the Syrian border.

In Baghdad, an AFP photographer was able to see a large security deployment blocking all access to the site of the strike. In the evening, the carcass of the car, which was nothing more than a pile of charred sheet metal, had been removed. “A drone fired three rockets at a 4X4 car” in the Machtal district, said an official at the Interior Ministry, on condition of anonymity. In total, three people, “two heads” of the Hezbollah Brigades and their driver, are dead. A Hezbollah Brigades official said commander Abu Baqir al-Saadi, the main target, was responsible for “military file” in Syria.

Hezbollah Brigades already targeted

The US Middle East Command (Centcom) says it killed “a Kataeb Hezbollah commander directly responsible for planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region”. In his press release, he assures that “the United States will continue to take the necessary actions to protect ours” and that Washington will be held accountable “to all those who threaten the security of our forces”.

Classified as a “terrorist” group by Washington and targeted by sanctions, the Hezbollah Brigades have already been targeted in recent weeks by American strikes in Iraq. The group is considered one of the leaders of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, a nebula of pro-Iran fighters who have claimed dozens of attacks in recent weeks against American soldiers and their partners in an international anti-jihadist coalition, in Iraq and in Syria.

In total since mid-October, more than 165 rocket attacks and drone strikes have targeted American soldiers in the Middle East, violence fueled by the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamas.