The United States carried out a drone strike in Baghdad late Wednesday that killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, according to Reuters. Among them are senior officials involved in a drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan late last month.
Fox News said the strike was considered a “high-value personal target.” The incident occurred on a main street in the Mashtar district in eastern Baghdad.
People inspect a vehicle targeted by an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, February 7, 2024. (Murtada Al Sudani/Anadolu via Getty Images)
One of those killed was believed to be Wissam Mohamed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria, according to Reuters.
The airstrike was in retaliation for a Jan. 28 drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan, when the U.S. military launched airstrikes on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria controlled by Iranian-backed militias. It took place a few days later.
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The United States blames Iraq’s Islamic Resistance Movement, a broad Iran-backed militia, for the attacks in Jordan, and officials say Kataib Hezbollah is suspected of being its leader.
Iraq’s Islamic resistance group claims it regularly attacks U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the U.S. supporting Israel in the ongoing Hamas offensive in Gaza.
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Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement after the Jordan airstrike that it would suspend attacks on U.S. forces to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government,” but other groups have also said they would continue fighting.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
