BAGHDAD: Airstrikes targeting a site belonging to Iraq’s Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in the western province of Anbar killed at least 14 fighters, including a senior commander, while a separate missile attack in the Kurdistan region has further underscored the widening spillover of the regional conflict.
Security and health sources told Reuters early on Tuesday that the strike on the PMF killed Saad Al-Baiji, the group’s Anbar operations commander, along with several of his companions, and wounded around 30 others.
The PMF confirmed the deaths in a statement and accused the United States of carrying out the attack, saying a US airstrike targeted a command headquarters during a security meeting attended by senior personnel.
The PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd Al-Shaabi, is an umbrella network of mostly Shiite paramilitary factions formally integrated into Iraq’s state security forces. Several of its constituent groups are aligned with Iran, and Tehran-backed factions have repeatedly targeted US bases in Iraq since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran in February.
In a separate development on Tuesday, Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region accused Iran of launching a deadly missile attack on its peshmerga forces.
“Six Iranian ballistic missiles targeted them” in two strikes, the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs said, adding that six fighters were killed and 30 wounded.
The attack marks the first deadly strike on Kurdish regional forces since the war began on Feb. 28 with Israeli-US strikes against Iran.
