Explosions rocked yesterday Tuesday base of the adjacent to Iran Iraqi paramilitary force Hashd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilization Units”) south of Baghdad, and reports so far indicate at least four dead and woundedsaid an AFP source in the Iraqi security forces and an official of the organization, which is now officially part of the Iraqi armed forces.

According to their official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, “four Hasd al-Shaabi members were killed.”

According to him, the explosions were due to an “air strike”, during which “four or five missiles hit the base”, near the city of Babylon.

The source in the Iraqi security forces confirmed the death toll of four and estimated that it might increase.

A US official told the Reuters news agency that it was a blow to the US armed forces, speaking of a “threat” to the forces of the Washington-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraqi territory, hours after Israel’s raid on Beirut that targeted a top official. military arm of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

On July 18, the group’s warehouses in a southern sector of Baghdad were blown up; in April, a member of the group was killed in an explosion at a base, also in Babylon province.

The Popular Mobilization Units, an alliance of paramilitary groups close to Iran, some of which have been blamed for a series of attacks against US troops in Iraq and Syria, have now been subsumed under the state security apparatus, typically reporting to the Iraqi prime minister.