WASHINGTON — The US military launched an airstrike in Iraq that killed a leader of an Iranian proxy group responsible for recent attacks on American forces in the Middle East, officials said Thursday.
The precision strike in Baghdad targeted a vehicle carrying Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, a high-ranking commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba — a US-designated terrorist organization based in Iraq and backed by Tehran.
The Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) — a coalition of Iran-backed militias nominally under the Iraqi military’s control — said al-Saidi, also known as “Abu Taqwa,” had been killed “as a result of brutal American aggression” in a statement after the strike.
The group is believed to have been responsible for at least some of the more than 100 drone and missile strikes on facilities housing American troops in Syria and Iraq since Oct. 17, 10 days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
Dozens of American troops have been wounded in those attacks, though most of the injuries have been minor, according to the Pentagon.
Members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force carrying a coffin at the funeral for commander Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi after he was killed in a US airstrike on Jan. 4, 2023. Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
Police vehicles at the scene of the drone strike in Baghdad. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad“This individual was actively involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters, “and as we’ve long said, we maintain the inherent right of self-defense and we’ll take necessary action to protect our personnel.”
Another person, described by Ryder as an “associate” of al-Saidi, was also killed in the strike, and five others were wounded, according to officials.
The move could jeopardize the US military’s standing in Iraq, with the strike coming a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani — who is backed by political factions linked to Iran — said Baghdad “is proceeding to end the presence of international coalition forces.”
Following the end of the Iraq War, coalition forces remained in the country at Baghdad’s invitation to advise Iraqi forces in countering ISIS, which continues to launch periodic attacks in Iraq despite losing the last of its self-proclaimed “caliphate” territory in 2017.
Another member was killed in the attack and five others were injured, according to officials. Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
A PMF member crying at the funeral for the dead leader. Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Iraqi army blamed the international coalition forces for the “unprovoked attack on an Iraqi security body operating in accordance with the powers [Iraq] granted to it,” Iraqi military spokesman Yehia Rasool said in a statement.
Outside of Harakat Hezbollah, al-Saidi had also served in a senior role in the PMF.
Thursday was the second time in under two weeks that the US launched a strike on Iranian-backed targets in Iraq.
On Christmas Day, President Biden ordered retaliatory hits after three US soldiers were wounded — one critically — in a drone strike by Iran-backed terrorists at an American base earlier that day.
Thursday’s strike also comes two days after a suspected Israeli drone strike in the suburbs of Beirut killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Arouri.
With Post wires
