by A retaliatory U.S. Special Operations drone strike in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday killed a senior leader of a militia that U.S. officials blame for recent attacks on American personnel, the Pentagon said, following up on the promise from President Biden that the response to a series of attacks by Shiite militias would continue.
The Pentagon said the man was a leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah, the militia that officials say was responsible for the drone attack in Jordan last month that killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40. .
A U.S. official said the attack was a “dynamic” strike against the militia commander, whom U.S. intelligence officials had been tracking for some time. A second official said the United States reserved the right to target other Shiite militia leaders and commanders.
Videos from the scene showed the remains of a vehicle in a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad and a fire nearby.
A senior official from Kata’ib Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said two commanders had been killed in the attack. Witnesses said identification cards found nearby identified them as Arkan al-Elayawi and Abu Baqir al-Saedi.
In response, crowds gathered in the streets of Baghdad chanting “America is the devil.”
Maj. Gen. Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesman for Iraqi security services, called the attack “an aggression” and said it “violated Iraqi sovereignty and risked having dangerous repercussions in the region.”
Wednesday’s attack came after three quieter days in the Middle East, following U.S. salvos on Friday and Saturday that began what Biden and his aides have said will be a sustained campaign of retaliation.
On Monday, the Pentagon said U.S. warplanes had destroyed or severely damaged most of the Iranian and militia targets they had attacked in Syria and Iraq on Friday.
Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said “more than 80” of about 85 targets in Syria and Iraq had been destroyed or rendered inoperable. The targets, he said, included command centers; intelligence centers; depots for rockets, missiles and attack drones; as well as logistics and ammunition bunkers.
Kata’ib Hezbollah, based in Iraq, is considered a proxy for Iran, and the United States considers the group a terrorist organization.
US officials blame Iran and militias aligned with it for what had become a near-daily barrage of rocket and drone attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the war between Hamas and Israel began on October 7. . The Biden administration has sought to calibrate retaliatory airstrikes to deter such groups while avoiding a broader war.
But when a drone strike hit a remote base in Jordan on Jan. 28, killing three U.S. service members, administration officials said a red line had been crossed and Biden pledged a sustained campaign of retaliation.
After that attack, Kata’ib Hezbollah said it would stop attacks on US forces, at the behest of the governments of Iraq and Iran, reflecting Iran’s reluctance to directly confront the United States. But other groups involved in such attacks have not made similar commitments.
The back-and-forth attacks in Syria, Iraq and Jordan – not to mention the tit-for-tat attacks the United States and its allies have exchanged with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen – have moved the region closer to broader integration. conflict, even as the administration insists it does not want a war with Iran. Instead, U.S. officials say they are focused on reducing the militias’ formidable arsenals and deterring additional attacks on U.S. troops as well as merchant ships in the Red Sea.
But by targeting Kata’ib Hezbollah commanders, the administration is sending a message to Iran and the militias it backs that every American life taken will be met with a forceful response, U.S. officials said.
In January, the Pentagon said the United States had killed a leader of another Iraqi militia, Haraqat al Nujaba, who was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel in Iraq and Syria.
Experts and national security officials say privately that to truly degrade the capabilities of Iranian-backed militias, the United States would have to carry out a year-long campaign similar to the six-year effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq. and Syria.
Even then, officials say, the militias, backed by Iran, could probably survive longer than the Islamic State, which was pressured by the United States and Iran, and even Russia. The United States would also have to target many more high-ranking leaders and commanders.
Falih Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad.
