Washington claims responsibility for drone attack in Baghdad
Iraqi security personnel at the entrance of a security site targeted by a US drone attack in Baghdad on January 4, 2024. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A US official said on Thursday that the US military killed a militia commander in a retaliatory strike in Baghdad, which it claims is responsible for recent attacks on US forces.
According to witnesses and Iraqi police sources, a drone launched at least two missiles into a site used by the Al-Nujaba militia in eastern Baghdad, according to Reuters.
Police sources said that the missiles killed four people, including a local group commander and one of his assistants, in addition to damaging a car at the Al-Nujaba headquarters.
Health officials in Iraq verified the number of dead.
Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October, US and international coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 100 times, most often by a combination of missiles and one-way attack drones.
900 US soldiers are stationed in neighboring Syria and 2,500 in Iraq in an effort to stop ISIS terrorists from rising again.
The Spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Major General Yehia Rasool, said in a statement that the attack was a flagrant act of aggression and a breach of Iraq’s sovereignty and security, describing the act as a terrorist operation, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The United States launched counterattacks in Iraq last month in response to a drone strike by insurgents affiliated with Iran that left one US serviceman critically injured and two others wounded.