Iraq blames the US-led coalition for the attack in Baghdad

“The Iraqi Armed Forces hold international coalition forces responsible for this attack,” Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al Sudani said in a statement. It calls the incident a dangerous escalation and aggression.

Iraq’s pro-Iranian forces announced the death of an important commander earlier and also blamed the United States.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization), a coalition of Iraqi ex-military groups now integrated into the country’s regular armed forces, announced that one of its military commanders had been killed in a US strike in Baghdad on Thursday.

At the time, an Iraqi security official reported two people had been killed in a drone attack.

“The drone targeted Hashed al-Shaabi’s logistical support headquarters,” said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two members of the pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi were killed and seven others wounded in the strike, he said.

A Hashed al Shaabi source, who also asked not to be named, confirmed the death toll and said the United States was behind the attack.

Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the Hashed al-Shaabi factions, said in a statement that “Mushtaq Talib al-Said, deputy commander of operations in Baghdad, was martyred in a US strike.”

The blow comes as tensions rise in the region over US ally Israel’s war with Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This war broke out following the unprecedented attacks carried out by Hamas on the territory of Israel on October 7.

Since mid-October, Washington has announced more than 100 attacks once morest US troops in Syria and Iraq.

Many of them have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The United States has deployed approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq. soldiers, and 900 in Syria. They belong to the international coalition fighting the jihadist group “Islamic State” (IS).

The US military has been conducting airstrikes once morest facilities in Iraq and Syria used by Iran and forces it supports, including Hashed al Shaabi, in response to the recent attacks.