US says retaliatory strike in Baghdad killed Iranian-backed officer
Newsy
U.S. Central Command said a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander was targeted in a retaliatory U.S. strike on Wednesday in Iraq.
A U.S. drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.
The strike was "in response to the attacks on U.S. service members." Central Command said it targeted a commander who had directly "planned and participated in attacks on U.S. forces in the region."
The strike came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage.
Two officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.
The strike came amid roiling tensions in the region and days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan in late January.
