U.S. strike kills pro-Iran commander
Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi was targeted for allegedly planning attacks on US troops.
Daily TribuneMushtaq Talib al-Saidi was targeted for allegedly planning attacks on US troops.
Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi stand guard at the entrance of their headquarters in Baghdad © Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP
A United States strike in Baghdad on Thursday killed a pro-Iran military commander, the Pentagon said, with Al-Hashed al-Shaabi ex-paramilitaries saying it hit one of their headquarters.
An Iraqi security official said two people were killed and seven wounded in the drone strike, which the government dubbed a "blatant aggression."
But Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said the strike was an act of self-defense against a commander who was actively planning attacks against US personnel.
"It is important to note that the strike was taken in self-defense, that no civilians were harmed and that no infrastructure or facilities were struck," Ryder told journalists in Washington.
The strike targeted a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba who was "actively involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel," according to Ryder, who said it also killed another of the group's members.
Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the Hashed's factions, said that "the deputy commander of operations for Baghdad, Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi," had been "martyred in a US strike."
Videos shared on a Telegram channel linked to the Hashed showed columns of smoke rising above the area of the strike on Baghdad's Palestine Street, normally a bustling commercial road.
The site was cordoned off by Hashed forces, who blocked journalists' access to the site, an Agence France-Presse photographer said.
The attack and the toll, confirmed by a Hashed source who asked not to be named, came as tension mounted in the region amid the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip.
The Hashed al-Shaabi are mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units who had battled Sunni Muslim jihadists and who are now integrated into the Iraqi armed forces.
