BAGHDAD: A drone strike hit a vehicle belonging to a pro-Iran group in Iraq on Tuesday, killing one of its occupants, security sources said.
The vehicle was part of a convoy traveling along the motorway through Abu Ghraib, 30 km west of Baghdad, the security sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A source from the Hashd Al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization forces — mainly pro-Iranian units recruited to fight the Daesh group but now integrated in the regular armed forces — confirmed the strike, saying it killed one fighter and wounded three others.
The pre-dawn strike damaged the vehicle, an Interior Ministry source said. Neither source specified whom they held responsible for the strike.
But it comes after the US carried out strikes in Syria on three separate occasions targeting what it said were Iran-linked groups behind a surge in attacks on US forces since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Since the conflict erupted with a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, American forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked 61 times, causing minor injuries to dozens of US troops, according to Pentagon officials. Most were rocket or drone attacks claimed by a group called “the Islamic resistance in Iraq.”
This group on Tuesday announced one of its fighters was killed, without elaborating on the circumstances of his death and without saying if he was killed in Abu Ghraib.
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of Daesh.
US forces “responded” following an attack on them at an Iraq base that caused minor injuries to personnel and damage to infrastructure, a US military official said.
“Following the attack ... US forces responded in self-defense against those who carried out the strike,” the official said preferring anonymity.
