The United States launched a drone strike in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday night, killing three members of the Allah militia in Qatapu, including a senior commander. Washington's Central Command (CENTCOM) has admitted responsibility for the attack.
At around 9:30 p.m. local time, a car in which the trio was traveling was hit near Mashtar in Baghdad. Local media Sabereen News described the attack as U.S. aggression. Photos circulating on social media show what appears to be remnants of the Hellfire missiles commonly used by U.S. attack drones.
Two of the dead have been identified as Haj Arkhan Al-Alawi and Wissam Mohammed 'Abu Bakr' al-Saadi, who were responsible for the operation of the Allah brigade in Syria.
U.S. forces kill senior Allah leaders
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), CENTCOM said it had carried out a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to attacks on U.S. military personnel, killing a Qatab Allah commander who was directly planning and involved in the attack on U.S. troops.
The United States blamed Allah in Qatab for an attack on a base on the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi borders last month, killing three American soldiers. After a series of retaliatory air strikes by the United States, the group announced that it would suspend the attacks.
Local media in Baghdad reported that large groups of protesters had gathered at the site of the attack, chanting slogans of "greater Satan" in the United States.
Al-Saadi is the highest-ranking member of Allah in Qatab killed in Iraq since a drone strike killed Abu Mahdi Mohandis and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. Tehran responded to the assassination by bombing American bases with ballistic missiles.
Israel has declared war on Hamas since last October, following its deadly attacks from Gaza, and Shiite militias have attacked U.S. bases in the region with rockets and drones at least 150 times since last October.
The White House blamed Tehran for the attack, but did not attack Iran, as some members of Congress demanded. The United States continues to have troops in Iraq even though the government in Baghdad has explicitly called for the withdrawal of US troops. The Pentagon's presence in Syria is illegal under international law.
Allah has vowed to continue to resist the US occupation
Following Wednesday's drone strike against one of its senior commanders, leaders of the Allah movement in Qatab vowed to remain steadfast in the militia's jihad campaign against U.S. forces in the region.
Secretary-General Abu Hussein Hamidawi said in a statement released on Thursday that the U.S. aggression "requires us to be steadfast in our jihadist tactics" and asked God to bless the families of commander Abu Bakr al-Saadi and others who lost their lives in the attack.
Saadi, the commander of the Allah brigade's militia in charge of anti-American and counter-terrorism operations in Syria, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Baghdad after his vehicle was hit by a drone. Two other militia officers, who were not named, were also killed in the attack.
Iraqi officials, who are already engaged in talks aimed at ending the U.S.-led military campaign in the country and expelling U.S. troops, have slammed the attack on Saadi as a flagrant violation of national sovereignty, with a government spokesman saying the aggression "undermines Iraq's sovereignty." All agreements between Iraq and the United States. ”
The spokesman warned that Washington's "aggressive violations" of Iraq's sovereignty would have "serious repercussions" for the region.
Not to be confused with the Lebanese Allah political and radical movement, Allah is an Iraqi militia affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a militia movement allied by the Iraqi government that has played a key role in defeating ISIS and Western-backed terrorists in Syria. The militia has become a central force in the "Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement," which calls for the complete expulsion of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Syria.
U.S. military bases in oil fields in eastern Syria were shelled
Local sources told Sputnik news agency that the US base in the Omar oil field in the province of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria was shelled, from where explosions were heard. According to the source, "the American base in the Omar oil field was hit by four rockets", and explosions were heard inside the base after the shelling.
According to the source, after the shelling, the American helicopter made an emergency take-off.
Israel attacked Syria, killing 9 people and wounding 13
A medical source told Sputnik that nine people were killed and 13 injured in an Israeli attack on the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday night.
On Wednesday evening, Syrian state broadcaster Al Akhbar reported that Syrian air defense systems repelled an Israeli missile attack on the province of Homs. Syria's Defense Ministry said later in the day that several civilians had died and some were injured.
Last night's Israeli attack on Homs and the province killed nine civilians and injured 13, and the casualty figure is final, sources said.
Last week, Israel launched a number of attacks on southern Damascus, all of which were repelled by Syrian air defenses and caused no casualties.