A US airstrike killed six people in an Iran-backed militia convoy north of Baghdad overnight Friday-Saturday.
The attack targeted a commander of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, Iraqi state TV reported. The convoy was hit near the Camp Taji military installation, Reuters reported, citing a source in the Iraqi military.
The Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces confirmed the strike, saying it targeted one of its medical convoys. The group denied any of its top leaders were killed. Some reports said that five people were killed in the airstrike. The strike hit two of the three vehicles traveling in the convoy and critically injured three people, the report said.
The Lebanese al-Mayadeen news outlet, which has ties to Hezbollah, reported that the strike was carried out by a drone. The airstrike comes a day after the US killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, who was closely tied to Shiite militia groups in Iraq.
The strike on Soleimani also killed Hashed al-Shaabi’s deputy chief, Abu Mahdi al-Muhanis, who was seen as Tehran’s man in Iraq, and came just days after Hashed supporters attacked the American embassy in Baghdad, provoking anger in Washington.
