Hundreds gather for the funeral of PMF leaders killed in U.S. airstrike
Shafaq News/ Hundreds of supporters of "al-Nujaba" movement and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Baghdad on Thursday evening mourned the deaths of three leaders in the movement who were killed in a US airstrike that targeted their headquarters in the capital.
A correspondent for the Shafaq News Agency said that more than 2,000 people participated in the funeral procession, which started from the headquarters of the PMF media directorate on the Palestine Street in central Baghdad, and will head to the Wadi al-Salam cemetery in Najaf for burial.
Earlier in the day, a senior security source said that an unknown airstrike by a drone targeted a PMF headquarters east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
The source added in a statement to Shafaq News Agency, that the logistics headquarters of the PMF, the 12th Brigade, al-Nujaba movement, located within the vicinity of the Iraqi Police College east of Baghdad, was exposed to an airstrike by an unknown drone.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry on denounced the U.S. "flagrant aggression" that targeted a security headquarters in central Baghdad and killed a high-ranking commander in al-Hashd al-Shaabi (PMF).
Thursday's strike comes amid mounting regional tensions fueled by the Israel-Hamas war and fears that it could spill over into surrounding countries. It also coincides with a push by Iraqi officials for U.S.-led coalition forces to leave the country.
A press release by the Iraqi foreign ministry said that the attack targeted a "security formation affiliated with the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces and operates under the commands of the state", describing it as a "dangerous escalation".
The ministry said that Iraq will take a "firm stance" and "all the necessary measures" to deter any attacks on its land and security forces.
The Popular Mobilization Force, or PMF, a coalition of paramilitary groups that is nominally under the control of the Iraqi military, announced in a statement that its deputy head of operations in Baghdad, Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, codenamed Abu Taqwa, had been killed "as a result of brutal American aggression".
U.S. officials confirmed that U.S. forces conducted a strike on a vehicle in Baghdad on Monday against the group Harakat al-Nujaba. The group, one of the groups within PMF, was designated a terrorist organization by Washington in 2019.
