Kataib Hezbollah Commander Killed in Baghdad by US Strike, According to Reuters

By Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari

BAGHDAD – A commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an armed group in Iraq backed by Iran, was killed in a U.S. strike on Wednesday, according to the U.S. military.

U.S. forces carried out a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to attacks on American service members, resulting in the death of a commander who had been directly involved in planning and executing attacks against U.S. forces in the region. The military did not disclose the name of the commander.

The statement indicated that there were no signs of civilian casualties following the strike.

Two security sources, who requested anonymity, identified the commander as Abu Baqir al-Saadi, who was killed in a drone attack targeting a vehicle in eastern Baghdad. One source reported that three individuals died in the strike, noting that the vehicle belonged to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security body comprising numerous armed groups, many of which are aligned with Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah personnel are integrated within the PMF. In January, three U.S. troops lost their lives in a drone strike near the Jordan-Syria border, an attack attributed to Kataib Hezbollah’s influence. Following that incident, the group announced a temporary halt to military operations against U.S. troops in the area.

Since the onset of the conflict in Gaza in October, Iraq and Syria have experienced frequent retaliatory assaults between hardline Iran-supported groups and U.S. forces in the region.

Recently, the U.S. launched strikes against Iran-backed factions in both Iraq and Syria, claiming it was only the beginning of its response to the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers.

In January, another U.S. drone strike in central Baghdad resulted in the death of a senior militia commander, an operation Washington described as a direct response to ongoing drone and rocket attacks against its personnel.

On Wednesday, Iraqi special forces heightened their alert status in Baghdad, and additional units were deployed within the Green Zone, which houses international diplomatic missions, including the U.S. embassy, according to a security source.