The Pentagon has confirmed that Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah's Syrian militia commander Wissam Muhammad Sabir "Abu Baqir" al-Saadi has been assassinated in a drone strike in Baghdad late Wednesday (Feb. 7).
The number of killed inside the vehicle al-Saadi was in has not yet been verified, but no civilian casualties were reported.
US defense officials added that the operation was just the beginning of Washington's retaliatory strikes for the deaths of three US military personnel in Jordan last month.
A Washington official told the New York Times that they have been tracking al-Saadi for some time, despite not naming him.
Another official made it clear that the US reserved the right to target any other Shiite militia leaders, indicating the country's response to the militia was far from done.
Both agreed to talk to reporters on the condition of anonymity.
US Intel Reveals Iran, Houthis Cooperating in Weapons Procurement
Meanwhile, VOA reported that the US's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) offered fresh evidence that Houthi attacks on international shipping were being carried out with Iranian weaponry, with some analysts and experts warning about the effectiveness of Washington's actions against the Houthis.
"Analysis confirms that Houthi forces have employed various Iranian-origin missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles against military and civilian targets throughout the region," the DIA said in a statement, pointing to a strengthening relationship between the Iranian regime and Houthi leadership.
"Since 2014, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force [IRGC-QF] has provided the Houthis a growing arsenal of sophisticated weapons and training," the agency added. "Iran's aid has enabled the Houthis to conduct a campaign of missile and UAV attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023."
The findings were based on current information, with some as recent as last month, and on a "comparative analysis of publicly available images of Iranian missiles and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] to those displayed and employed by Houthi forces."
Iran, on the other hand, repeatedly denied provisioning the Houthis with sophisticated weaponry.
"They have their own weapons," Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani told NBC News late Tuesday (Feb. 6). "They have been eight years under the war. They have a lot of experiences."
Some experts said that the DIA report's findings largely confirmed previous intelligence assessments, and it was a source of worry in terms of providing safety for international shipping.
"The DIA report underscores how the Houthis have been getting Iranian technology for over a decade and modifying it to build their own missiles and drones," Brookings Institution analyst and former CIA officer Bruce Reidel said. "The Houthis' capabilities are not highly sophisticated and can be replaced easily with materials already in Yemen."
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