WSJ: Pentagon used six-bladed "Ginsu" weapon to kill Iraqi militia leader PHOTO

The Pentagon killed a Kataib Hezbollah leader in downtown Baghdad last week using a weapon that employs six long blades to shred its target and minimize civilian casualties, defence officials told the Wall Street Journal.

The modified Hellfire missile, which inside the military is referred to colloquially as “the flying Ginsu,” recalling the popular knives sold on TV infomercials in the 1970s, was used to target Abu Baqr al-Saadi, the leader of Kataib Hezbollah in Syria. The US use of the Ginsu in the Baghdad strike hasn’t been previously disclosed.

The strike on al-Saadi, who was travelling in a car, was part of a retaliatory response to the Iranian-backed group for their role in attacks on US troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, where a January 28 attack on a base killed three American soldiers, the officials said.