NewsProbe News from Nigeria and Around the world
A fresh United States air strike has killed six people in Iraq – a day after Donald Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general. The convoy was targeted late on Friday on the Taji road north of Baghdad, state TV said.
It did not name the militia or provide further details.
The US is targeting Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) umbrella group, an Iran-backed Shi’ite militia.
Another three people were critically wounded in the latest air strike, an Iraqi army source said late on Friday.
Two of the three vehicles making up a militia convoy were found burned, the source said, as well as six burned corpses. The strike took place at 1.12 am local time, he said.
The PMF claims the victims included medics.
The latest attack came after the US drone strike that killed Iran’s Major General Qassem Suleimani at Baghdad’s international airport.
Iran has vowed ‘crushing revenge’ on the US for the ‘assassination’.
Defence minister Amir Hatami, who is also top commander of the elite Quds, said: “A crushing revenge will be taken for Soleimani’s unjust assassination.
“We will take revenge from all those involved and responsible for his assassination.”
In the aftermath of Friday’s attack, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned a “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the US – describing the commander as the “international face of resistance”.
Regional neighbour Syria has condemned ‘treacherous, criminal American aggression’ that led to the killing of Soleimani, state news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying on Friday.
The source said the attack constituted a “serious escalation” and reaffirmed US responsibility for instability in Iraq, according to SANA.
(Mirror online)
