Kataib Hezbollah Commander Killed in Baghdad by US Strike, Reports Reuters

By Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari

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

The military stated that the strike was carried out unilaterally in Iraq in retaliation for attacks on U.S. service members. The U.S. military affirmed that the commander was directly involved in plotting and executing assaults against U.S. forces in the area, although they did not disclose his name.

Reports indicated that there were no civilian casualties from the strike. However, two security sources, who spoke anonymously, identified the commander as Abu Baqir al-Saadi, who was killed in a drone strike targeting a vehicle in eastern Baghdad.

One of the sources reported that three individuals were killed in the incident and that the vehicle belonged to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security entity made up of numerous armed groups, many of which have close ties to Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah members are integrated into the PMF. The Pentagon linked the group to a drone attack in January that resulted in the deaths of three U.S. troops near the Jordan-Syria border, indicating that it bore the "footprints" of Kataib Hezbollah. Subsequently, the group announced a suspension of military operations against U.S. forces in the region.

Since the onset of the Gaza conflict in October, Iraq and Syria have experienced ongoing reciprocal attacks between hardline Iran-backed groups and U.S. troops in the vicinity. In response to the killing of the three U.S. soldiers, the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran-backed factions in Iraq and Syria over the previous weekend.

In a related context, Iraqi special forces heightened their alert status in Baghdad, and additional units were dispatched to the Green Zone, which encompasses various international diplomatic missions, including the U.S. embassy.