US strikes Iran-backed militia in Iraq amid Hezbollah-Israel tensions

WASHINGTON — The US military carried out an airstrike in central Iraq on Tuesday night as American troops braced for anticipated retaliation by local militias after an Israeli strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

US officials described the strike in Iraq's Babil governorate as defensive, saying it targeted militants who were preparing to launch a one-way attack drone that posed a threat to US forces.

Explosions were reported in the vicinity of a Kataib Hezbollah base near Jurf al-Sakhar, between the capital, Baghdad, and the city of Karbala on Tuesday night. Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces said in a statement that several of its members were killed in the blast. 

Just hours earlier, Israeli airstrikes killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in the Dahiya suburb of the Lebanese capital. 

Why it matters: US forces in Iraq and Syria have been bracing for expected retaliatory attacks by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria for days in anticipation of the Israeli strike.

Shukr, better known by the nom de guerre Hajj Mohsen, is the highest-ranking Hezbollah official to be killed by Israel so far amid an ongoing exchange of daily cross-border strikes fueled by the Oct. 7 war in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement after the strike, Israel's military described him as "the right-hand man" to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and accused him of being responsible for a rocket attack over the weekend that killed 12 children at a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-claimed Golan Heights.

Shukr's death has not been publicly confirmed by Hezbollah, though Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said he was killed in the airstrike on the Dahiya neighborhood on Tuesday evening.

Israeli officials notified US officials that they would carry out a strike against Shukr in advance, two Israeli officials told Al-Monitor. Pentagon officials received notification of the imminent Israeli strike shortly before the strike was carried out.

Why it matters: The assassination comes after top Biden administration officials cautioned their Israeli counterparts earlier this week against retaliating in a way that could trigger a wider war in the region.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has built a broad network of militias stretching across Iraq, Syria and Yemen and armed them with guided drones and rockets that they have repeatedly fired at US bases and toward Israel since the Oct. 7 war began.

“Based on the conversations we have been having, we don’t believe that this needs to result in an escalation or a broader war. There’s no reason for that outcome to occur,” White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Monday, as Washington braced for Israel's retaliation for the Majdal Shams attack.

Yet US military officials speaking to Al-Monitor said they expected further retaliation following the Israeli strike in Beirut.

Know more: Hajj Mohsen is the most senior Hezbollah official to be killed by Israel since the 2006 Lebanon war. Read Al-Monitor's backgrounder on the late adviser to Nasrallah. 

This is a breaking story and will be updated.