Iranian-backed militias affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces say that up to 30 of their members were killed and wounded in airstrikes on one of their bases east of Baghdad in Iraq’s Anbar province.
A report overnight had said a bombing targeted a PMF site near Habbaniyeh in Iraq. Habbaniyeh is between Baghdad and Ramadi.
Other reports on social media claimed that US airstrikes had targeted the Shi’ite militia base and that leaders within the group had been killed.
According to Iraq’s Shafaq News, there were “30 killed and wounded from the Popular Mobilization Forces in the bombing of the Habbaniyah base in Anbar.”
The report notes that “the death toll from the air strike that targeted a headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces inside the Habbaniyah base in Anbar province on Monday night to Tuesday morning has risen to 30 members, including dead and wounded, amid conflicting official and field statistics.”
Shafaq says that sources told their media that the strike had initially been believed to have killed ten members of the PMF. The PMF is mostly made up of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.
Iran-backed militias target US sites in Iraq
These groups have carried out hundreds of attacks in Iraq since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran on February 28. The groups have targeted the US Embassy in Baghdad and other sites where US personnel are present.
They have also targeted the Kurdistan region. On March 23, they also carried out rocket attacks on Syria. There have also been numerous airstrikes targeting the PMF. The group blames Israel and the US for the strikes.
Shafaq noted that “in a related context, the Popular Mobilization Forces mourned in an official statement the death of its operations commander in Anbar province, Saad Dawai, and later confirmed in a statement the death of 14 other members who were with him, describing the attack as a ‘treacherous American targeting’ that directly targeted the operations headquarters.”
The report says that “with this official announcement, the number of confirmed deaths rises to 15 fighters, while the wounded are still receiving treatment amid reports of critical cases that could raise the final toll.”
It is not clear if these are two separate incidents. One report on social media said that Dawai’s deputy, Wathiq al-Fartousi, was also killed.
“In a blatant and cowardly attack, the commander of Anbar Operations in the Popular Mobilization Forces, Saad Dawai al-Baiji, was martyred along with a group of his heroic comrades, as a result of a treacherous American airstrike that targeted the command headquarters,” the PMF said in a statement, according to The New Region media.