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Commander in Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah killed in Israeli strike in Syria
An Iraqi militia commander was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on Friday, days after his group vowed to fight Israel over the pager explosions in Lebanon.
The Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah said Abu Haidar al-Khafaji was killed in a “Zionist assault” at dawn in Damascus. Khafaji had been working as a security advisor in the area, the group said in a statement on Telegram.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a Kataib Hezbollah commander had been killed in a drone attack that targeted his vehicle on the road to the Damascus airport early Friday morning. The drone was “believed to be Israeli,” according to the pro-opposition war monitor, which did not identify the commander.
Khafaji had previously fought against “Takfiri-Wahabi gangs” in Syria, including at the Sayyidah Zaynab mosque, and participated in battles against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, according to the Kataib Hezbollah statement.
Iran and its proxies refer to Sunni Islamist groups, including ISIS and the Syrian rebels, as “takfiri,” an Arabic term used to describe “infidels” according to Islam. ISIS attacked the Sayyidah Zaynab mosque in 2016.
Why it matters: Israel is suspected of carrying out regular strikes against Iranian and Iran-backed militia targets throughout Syria, although it rarely discusses its operations abroad. Earlier this month, the Syrian government said that 18 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the central Hama province.
The strike against Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most prominent Iran-backed militias in Iraq, follows Israel detonating pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon used by Lebanese Hezbollah members earlier this week. The incident left 37 dead, including civilians.
Following the initial pager explosions on Tuesday, Kataib Hezbollah vowed to help its Lebanese namesake.
“We are fully prepared to go with them until the end, sending fighters and equipment and support, whether on the technical or logistical level,” the group said in a statement.
The US military has also conducted strikes against Kataib Hezbollah in response to attacks on American forces in the region.
Know more: The conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah has escalated since the pager explosions. Heavy Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon on Friday, while Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets toward northern Israel.
