Fresh Airstrike Hits PMU Convoy

By Staff, Agencies

Shortly after the United States’ assassination of a senior Iranian commander in Baghdad, a fresh airstrike hit a convoy belonging to Iraq’s anti-terror fighters north of the Arab country’s capital, reportedly killing six people.

The strike came almost exactly 24 hours after the Friday attacks that martyred Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC], and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units [PMU], as they were travelling on the Baghdad International Airport road.

The PMU said the later attack targeting its fighters hit a convoy of medics, not senior leaders as reported in some media, near Taji stadium in Baghdad, AFP reported.

The group did not say who was responsible, but Iraqi state television reported it was a US airstrike.

The aggression killed six people and critically wounded three, an Iraqi army source told Reuters.

General Soleimani cooperated side by side with the PMU in the face of the most deadly terrorist outfits to ever afflict the region, including the Daesh Takfiri group.

The Islamic Republic denounced Soleimani’s assassination as “an act of state terrorism,” saying it belies Washington’s claim of fighting terrorism in the region.

Tehran said it reserves the right to respond in kind, and pledged not to abandon its contribution to regional counter-terrorism efforts.