U.S. drone strike kills a leader of an Iran-backed militia in Iraq
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In Baghdad, a U.S. airstrike has killed at least one leader of one of the most powerful Iran-backed militias. The attack took place mid-evening in a crowded Baghdad neighborhood. There's been extremely high tension between the U.S., Iran and Iraq.
NPR's Jane Arraf joins us from Baghdad. Jane, what more can you tell us about this strike?
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: It took place in a crowded residential and commercial area in Baghdad - eastern Baghdad - about mid-evening, when there were a lot of people out and around. Videos from the scene, confirmed by an Interior Ministry official, showed a sport utility vehicle engulfed in flames and emergency vehicles rushing to the scene. The main telegram channel used by a coalition of Iran-backed militias confirmed that a leader of Kataib Hezbollah was killed in the attack. It named him as Abu Bakr al-Saadi. An official at the - at Iraq's Ministry of Interior said he had been the head of logistics for Kataib Hezbollah. And a statement from CENTCOM - U.S. CENTCOM - which confirmed that it conducted a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to the attacks recently on U.S. service members - it said it killed a Kataib Hezbollah commander who it said was responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.
SHAPIRO: And this is not the first strike on this particular militia. Tell us about the context.
ARRAF: Well, Kataib Hezbollah is perhaps the most powerful member of the mostly Iran-backed militias that call themselves the Islamic Resistance of Iraq. It's a group that had existed before, but they've significantly stepped up attacks since the start of the war in Gaza against the U.S. because of what they say - against the U.S. because of its support for Israel and also because they reject the presence of U.S. forces here.
The U.S. said the attack in January on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed three service people bore their fingerprints - this particular group. And in retaliation for that, the United States struck a main militia headquarters on the weekend in Iraq near the Syrian border. But most of the casualties in that strike were believed to be relatively low-level and from other militias. This one seemed to be very targeted.
SHAPIRO: What has the reaction been in Iraq?
ARRAF: There's been a cautious Iraqi military statement. They say they're still investigating after a vehicle was hit and passengers killed. We have to remember this is a nightmare for the Iraqi government. The government, which is also backed by Iran in many senses, says it has tried to rein in these militias, and it doesn't want to become a battleground for the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. But the U.S. had said - has said that the government isn't doing enough. And when it announced the retaliation for the deaths of U.S. service people, it said the retaliation would be open-ended. And this is what we're seeing, essentially.
It was very targeted, this strike, according to videos verified by the Interior Ministry here. Images of the weapons frograms (ph) looked as - of the fragments looked as if it were a version of the U.S. Hellfire missile with an inert warhead, and that's the kind used in other counterterrorism attacks.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Thank you.
ARRAF: Thank you.
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