by Bernhard at Moon of Alabama
Updated below (9:00 UTC):
On January 28 a drone strike killed U.S. soldiers near an (illegal) U.S. base on the Syrian/Iraqi/Jordan border triangle. The attack followed after open U.S. support for the Israeli attempt to genocide Gaza.
Yesterday a U.S. ‘retaliation’ strike on leaders of an Iraqi militia under the command of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior killed two top officers of Kataib Hezbullah. (The Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah is not related to Hezbullah in Lebanon):
U.S. Strike in Baghdad Kills Iranian-Backed Militia Commander (archived) – New York Times, Feb 7 2024
Videos from the scene showed the charred wreckage of a vehicle in a neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, and a nearby fire.A senior Kata’ib Hezbollah official and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps both said that two commanders had been killed in the strike. Witnesses said identification cards found nearby identified them as Arkan al-Elayawi and Abu Bakir al-Saadi.
In response, crowds gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, chanting “America is the devil.”
Wednesday’s strike came after three quieter days in the Mideast, following American salvos on Friday and Saturday, the first in what Mr. Biden and his aides have said will be a sustained campaign of retaliation.
The U.S. strike came days after Kataib Hezbullah had promised to follow orders from the Iraqi government to stand down and to cease all hostile activities.
As Reuters reported last week:…
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