Drone strike in Baghdad kills high-ranking militia commander, officials say
Militia officials say a drone strike has hit a car in the Iraqi capital and killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander
BAGHDAD (AP) — A drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia including a high-ranking commander, militia officials said.
The strike occurred on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage.
Two officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said that one of those killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al—Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.
The strike came days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan in late January.
