Ahmad 
A Pentagon official confirmed that the US Air Force launched a strike in Iraq that killed four people from the Iraqi “Hezbollah” east of Baghdad, targeting an SUV with three missiles.
Iraqi sources had earlier said that drones targeted a car east of Baghdad, killing three people in the “Al-Mashtal” area of Baghdad with missiles fired by a remotely piloted aircraft.
According to Iraqi sources, the raid killed at least 3 people, including two leaders of the pro-Iranian Iraqi Hezbollah.
The raid, carried out by a US march east of Baghdad, killed two of the most prominent Hezbollah brigades officials in Iraq, Abu Baqir al-Saadi and Arkan al-Alawiyah.
Al-Alawi was in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s information system.
The new US offensive is seen as the second wave of retaliation, after 3 soldiers were killed at a base on the Jordanian-Syrian border days ago.
Earlier, Washington announced that its first response to the soldiers’ deaths was just the beginning, after announcing the bombing of 85 targets at positions of pro-Iranian factions in Syria and Iraq last week.
The Iraqi Hezbollah announced at the end of January the suspension of its operations against US forces to avoid embarrassing the government in Baghdad, but attacks on US forces bases did not stop, suggesting that the two sides will continue to escalate in the coming days and weeks.