Earlier in the day, the regional news agency reported, citing sources, that three people, including Shiite commander Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, had been killed and six others injured in a drone strike against the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in eastern Baghdad. Meanwhile, some other media reported about four people killed in the attack.
"The Iraqi Armed Forces hold the Global Coalition Forces responsible for this unwarranted attack on an Iraqi security entity that is operating within the powers authorized by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces," the spokesperson for the Iraqi armed forces, Commander-in-Chief, Maj. Gen. Yehia Rasool, was quoted as saying by media.
The Iraqi armed forces consider the attack as "a dangerous escalation and assault on Iraq," as well as "an act akin to terrorist activities," the spokesperson reportedly added.
The PMF is an Iraqi organization that includes a number of different armed factions, most of them Shia Muslim. The Shia armed groups have intensified their attacks on bases of the US-led international coalition in Iraq, as well as US troops in Syria over the past months, as they consider the US complicit in the attacks mounted by Israel on Palestinian civilians. Washington, for its part, believes that the attacks are carried out by pro-Iranian groups.