Alleged US strike kills pro-Iran militia commander at its HQ in Baghdad

An alleged US strike in Baghdad on January 4 killed a military commander of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), the ex-paramilitary force said, with an Iraq security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack.

“A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of PMF,” mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into the Iraqi armed forces, said the security official, according to the Times of Israel.

The strike killed “two members and wounded seven others,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A PMF source, also asking not to be named, confirmed the death toll and charged that the United States was behind the attack.

Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the PMF’s factions, said in a statement that “the deputy commander of operations for Baghdad, Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi” had been “martyred in a US strike.”

There was no immediate comment from US officials, whose forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria have faced a surge in attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Videos shared on a Telegram channel linked to the PMF showed columns of smoke rising above the area of the strike on Baghdad’s Palestine Street, normally a bustling commercial road.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that the US-led international coalition bears responsibility for the “unjustified” attack on an Iraqi security force.

The alleged US strike comes amid soaring regional tensions over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which began on October 7, when terrorists stormed the Gaza border into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and kidnapped at least 240.

The past week saw deadly blasts in Iran and the killing of deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in an alleged Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and Gazan terror group Hamas have vowed revenge over the killing of Arouri, while Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the twin blasts that ripped through a crowd commemorating General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq exactly four years ago. The US and Israeli observers have said it is unlikely the blasts were Israel’s doing.