The commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Iraqi militant group that the Pentagon has blamed for attacking U.S. troops, was killed in a U.S. strike in Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement cited by Reuters. , as reported by News. ro.

“(U.S. forces) launched a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to attacks on U.S. military personnel, killing a Kataib Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region,” the military said in a statement. surname of the deceased commander.

The statement added that there were no indications that the strike resulted in civilian casualties.

Two security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was commander Abu Bakr al-Saadi who was killed in a drone attack on a vehicle in eastern Baghdad.

One of the sources said three people were killed and that the targeted vehicle was being used by the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state security agency made up of dozens of armed groups, many of which are close to Iran. Kataib Hezbollah fighters and commanders are part of the PMF.

Three American soldiers were killed in January in a drone attack on a base near the border between Jordan and Syria. The Pentagon said that there were “traces” of Kataib Hezbollah in the attack. The group then announced it was suspending its military operations against US forces in the region.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October, Iraq and Syria have witnessed near-daily attacks between radical armed groups backed by Iran and US troops stationed in the region.

Late last week, the United States launched strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria in what it said was just the beginning of a response to the killing of three American soldiers at a base in Jordan.

In January, a US drone strike killed a senior militia commander in central Baghdad, an attack Washington said was in response to drone and missile attacks on its forces.

Iraqi special forces were on high alert in Baghdad on Wednesday, while other units were deployed inside the Green Zone, which houses international diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, ​​a security source said.