A strike in Baghdad on Thursday, January 4, killed a military commander of the Hashd al-Shaabi (aka. the Popular Mobilization Forces), the ex-paramilitary force said, with an Iraqi security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack. It was not immediately clear who had carried out the strike.
"A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of Hashd al-Shaabi," mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into the Iraqi armed forces, said the security official. The strike killed "two members and wounded seven others," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It came amid heightened regional tensions since war broke out between US ally Israel and Iran-backed Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group's deadly October 7 attack. Videos shared on a Telegram channel linked to the Hashd showed columns of smoke rising above the area of the strike on Baghdad's Palestine street, normally a bustling commercial road.
A Hashd source, who also asked not to be named, confirmed the death toll and said that the United States was behind the attack.
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba – one of the Hashd's factions – said in a statement that "the deputy commander of operations for Baghdad, Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi,” had been "martyred in a US strike."
There was no immediate comment from US officials, whose forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria have faced a surge in attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Washington has counted more than 100 attacks against US targets in Syria and Iraq since mid-October. Many have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza war.
The United States has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of a multinational coalition fighting the Islamic State group. The US military has responded to recent attacks by launching air strikes targeting sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, including Hashd sites.