The leader of a pro-Iranian militant group, which Washington says has been involved in attacks against its troops, was killed in Iraq on Thursday in a US strike, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder confirmed the same day.

“This strike was an act of self-defense. No civilians were injured. No infrastructure or facilities were hit,” he told reporters.

The strike targeted the leader of one of the Hashd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization Units”) factions of an alliance of Shiite former paramilitaries close to Iran, which has now joined regular Iraqi forces.

This leader was “actively involved in organizing and carrying out attacks against US troops”, the senior US officer added, confirming the death of another member of the group.

Both were killed in a drone strike on a building of their organization in Baghdad.

The “drone” strike targeted “a logistics support center of Hasd al-Shaabi” on the eastern side of the Iraqi capital, an Iraqi security official said on condition of anonymity, adding that “two members (of Hasd al-Shaabi ) were killed and seven others were injured”.

“Deputy commander of operations for Baghdad, Mustaq Talib al-Saidi” “was martyred in a US strike,” the al-Nujaba movement, one of those pro-Iranian and staunchly anti-American factions, said in a statement.

A source of Hasd al-Shaabi confirmed this account.

US troops and those of the international coalition against the jihadists deployed in Iraq and Syria have come under near-daily drone and rocket attacks since the October 7 war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

In recent weeks, the armed groups of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi have been repeatedly targeted by bombings, some of which have been claimed by the United States, a country hated by pro-Iranian factions because of Washington’s support for Israel.