A US drone strike in Baghdad killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, according to US officials.
The drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital and was in response to a drone strike that killed three American soldiers in Jordan at the end of January.
Sky News' Alex Crawford arrived at the scene shortly after the explosion and said there was “huge tension” and “a great deal of anger towards America.”
“There was an angry reaction about the killing,” she said.
“Local residents here are demanding that the Iraqi government conduct an investigation and take revenge,” he added.
“There's a lot of anger, a lot of tension here.”
Crowds gathered as emergency response teams searched through the wreckage.
Burnt car after the raid in Baghdad. Photo: Getty
The United States blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iranian-backed militias, for the attack on its forces in Jordan, and officials said they suspected Kataib Hezbollah, in particular, of leading that attack.
The raid on Wednesday evening targeted a main road in the Al-Mashtal neighborhood, east of Baghdad.
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“They want revenge on the Americans”
A US official said that a senior commander in the Hezbollah Brigades was targeted in the raid.
Two officials from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three dead was Wissam Muhammad “Abu Bakr” Al-Saadi, the commander responsible for Kataib Hezbollah operations in Syria.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Riot police at the scene. Photo: Sky News Screen.
A person at the scene holds a photo of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, who were assassinated in a US air strike in 2020. Photo: Sky News Screen
People at the scene of a US airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, holding a picture of Muqtada al-Sadr, a prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric. Photo: Sky News Screen.
Security forces closed the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the American embassy.
Kataib Hezbollah earlier said in a statement that it had suspended its attacks on US forces to avoid “embarrassing the Iraqi government” after the strike in Jordan, but others pledged to continue fighting.
And yet comes Three soldiers were killed and more than 40 others were injured In a drone strike on the Burj 22 military base in Jordan.
A US official said that a senior commander in the Hezbollah Brigades was targeted in the raid on Wednesday
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US officials previously said they believe Kataib Hezbollah is one of several factions behind the attack, which killed William Jerome Rivers, 46, Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Breonna Alexandria Moffitt, 23.
President Joe Biden promised a strong American response.
Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraq-based militant group believed to have ties to Iran, was founded in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and considers US forces to be foreign occupiers.
The United States classified the group as a terrorist organization in 2009, and it carried out an American drone strike. Its leader, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, was killed in 2020 At Baghdad airport.
Since October 18, there have been 166 attacks on US military facilities, according to officials in Washington.
They are said to include 67 attacks in Iraq, 98 in Syria, and the attack on Tower 22 in Jordan.
