A US drone strike in Iraq has killed at least three people, including the leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group.
The attack hit a vehicle in Mashtal, in the east of Iraqi capital Baghdad, security sources from the country said.
Several loud explosions could be heard in what a senior US defence official told CBS News was a drone strike.
The senior commander of the militia killed in the US strike was in charge of carrying out attacks on American forces in the region, the Pentagon said.
Crowds in Baghdad watch as the destroyed vehicle is hauled into the air
Reuters
A mob by the burnt wreck chanted "America is the biggest devil" and drove away a team of BBC reporters at the scene; one man shouted: "You are foreigners... and foreigners are to blame".
Crowds are heading to the US embassy in Baghdad to protest, the BBC said.
Other Iran-backed groups were also hit in Wednesday night's attack.
A US military statement said: "[US] forces conducted a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to the attacks on US service members, killing a Kataib Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region."
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The US drone strike hit a vehicle in Mashtal, in the east of Iraqi capital Baghdad
Reuters
It added that there were no indications of civilian casualties.
Two security sources anonymously said the commander's name was Abu Baqir al-Saadi.
One of the sources said three people were killed and that the vehicle targeted was used by Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a state security agency composed of dozens of armed groups, many of them close to Iran.
The US attacks were likely in retaliation to the apparent Hezbollah offensive which killed three American soldiers and injured dozens more in Jordan on January 28.
Kataib Hezbollah, part of a network of organisations which claimed responsibility for the attack on US troops, had suspended operations against American forces "to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government".
The US had initially hit back verbally; their defence department said "actions speak louder than words", while President Biden hinted he had already made up his mind on a response.
This would appear to be the latest part of said response, following 85 American airstrikes on militia targets across Iraq and Syria days ago.
Kataib Hezbollah is an Iraqi militia group which seeks to establish a pro-Iran government in Iraq and advance Iranian interests across the Middle East.
The group formed in response to coalition forces' invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has since killed hundreds of US soldiers.
It has received funding, support, weapons and intelligence from Iran in the past, and used a "type of Shahed drone" – a 'one-way drone' used by forces like Russia and the Houthi rebels – in its apparent attack on the American base in Jordan last month.
The exchange of fire between Western forces and Iran-backed groups will be seen by some as an ongoing spillover from the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has been raging since October 2023.
Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said on Tuesday: "As we announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces - in order to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government - we will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways."
