Iraq
Iraqi fighters from the Iran-backed armed group Kataib Hezbollah march during a parade in Baghdad on May 31, 2019. Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s pro-Iran Kata’ib Hezbollah said Monday that its spokesperson and senior security official, Abu Ali al-Askari, was killed. This comes following an attack reportedly on one of its positions in Baghdad on Saturday.
“We announce to you the martyrdom of Hajj Abu Ali al-Askari,” Kata’ib Hezbollah said in a statement by leader Ahmad al-Hamidawi, known as Abu Hussein, published by Sabreen News, a channel affiliated with Iranian-backed factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
The statement added that “the banner” Askari carried “will be raised” by the head of Hezbollah’s security, Abu Mujahid al-Asaf.
The announcement follows explosions heard in Baghdad early Saturday after airstrikes targeted a house in the city, which, according to Rudaw’s information, was used as the headquarters of a PMF leader. Security sources said a member of the PMF was killed in the attack.
AFP cited a security source at the time saying that “a key figure was martyred” in the strike on the house used by Kata’ib Hezbollah. Neither the PMF nor Iraqi authorities immediately released the identities of the victims, though some officials and lawmakers affiliated with the PMF posted verses from the Quran on social media referencing death.
Kata’ib Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by Washington.
Last week, Askari had said that the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Israeli strikes at the onset of the war with Iran had made undermining the security of US assets and expelling them from the region a top priority for Iran-aligned Iraqi armed groups.
In late February, the group called on its fighters to prepare for what it described as a potential “war attrition that may be long-term, exceeding the estimates of the US administration.”
At the start of the war, several airstrikes targeted a PMF base in Babil province used by Kata’ib Hezbollah.
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