It was the first such airstrike conducted by American forces in the region for six months.
The organization targeted in the raid, Hashd ash-Shabi, is suspected of being behind several recent attacks on US personnel in Iraq.
Five people are reported to have been killed, including a suspected member of the Yemeni Houthis, who have also been engaged in drone operations against Israel and US forces since the start of the war on Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
A drone specialist from the Iranian Quds Force, Ahmed Reza Afshari, was wounded in the attack. The United States carried out a strike in Iraq that US officials described as self defense, as regional tensions rose after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that Israel said killed Hezbollah’s most senior commander.
Iraqi police and medical sources said the strike inside a base south of Baghdad used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) killed four members of the group that contains several Iran-aligned armed militias, and wounded four others.
In a statement after the blasts, the Popular Mobilization Forces made no accusation about who was responsible.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States carried out an airstrike in Musayib, located in Babil province, but did not provide more details on the location.
The officials added that the strike targeted militants that the US deemed were looking to launch drones and posed a threat to US and coalition forces.
The officials did not comment on any casualties.
“This action underscores the United States’ commitment to the safety and security of our personnel,” one of the officials said.
Iraq condemned the strike saying the US-led military coalition committed a “heinous crime” by targeting security sites south of Baghdad and said the attacks were a serious violation of the coalition’s mission and mandate, an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement.
Multiple rockets were launched toward Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad air base housing US-led forces last week, US and Iraqi sources said, with no damage or casualties reported. US officials said none of the rockets hit the base.
Tuesday’s action was the first known US strike in Iraq since February, when the US military launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iran-aligned militias.
The 150,000-strong Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-sanctioned grouping of Iraqi paramilitaries, is dominated by heavily armed and battle-hardened groups loyal to Iran and with close ties to its Revolutionary Guards.
Iraq, a rare ally of both the US and Iran which hosts 2,500 US troops and has Iran-backed militias linked to its security forces, has witnessed escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October.
Iraq wants troops from the US-led military coalition to begin withdrawing in September and to formally end the coalition’s work by September 2025, Iraqi sources have said, with some US forces likely to remain in a newly negotiated advisory capacity.
The issue is highly politicized, with mainly Iran-aligned Iraqi political factions looking to show that they are again pushing out the country’s one-time occupier, while US officials want to avoid giving Iran and its allies a win.
US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, toppled former leader Saddam Hussein and then withdrew in 2011, only to return in 2014 to fight Islamic State at the head of a coalition.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.
Israel targeted Deif in a July 13 strike that hit a compound on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, but the military said for weeks it was working to determine if he died in the blast. Hamas has denied he was killed. More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were killed in the strike, Gaza health officials said at the time.
In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said that “following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike.”
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The Israeli confirmation came a day after an apparent Israeli airstrike in Tehran killed Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has not confirmed or denied being behind the attack, but Iran has vowed retaliation. Along with Deif and Haniyeh, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, but he has so far remained elusive.
Israel says Sinwar and Deif were the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants rampaged in southern Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
Deif was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, in the 1990s and lead the unit for decades. Under his command, it carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis on buses and at cafes and built up a formidable arsenal of rockets that could strike deep into Israel and often did.
