US strike kills Iran-backed militia leader in Baghdad as regional tensions rise
by Peter Beaumont in Beirut and Julian Borger in Wash from World news | The Guardian on (#6HK6Y)
Two killed and five wounded, militia officials say, before US secretary of state's tour of Middle East
A US airstrike in Baghdad on Thursday killed the commander of an Iranian-backed Shia militia that Washington blames for attacks on American forces in the region, according to US officials.
One official said that a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, later named by the Pentagon as Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari, was killed in his car as he was about to enter the garage at his group's Baghdad headquarters. News footage from Baghdad showed damage to the building. Harakat al-Nujaba, which has been active in Syria and Iraq, is loyal to Tehran but also forms part of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a collection of largely autonomous militias.
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