Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), a powerful Tehran-backed Iraqi militia, has said one of its top military commanders was killed in what it deemed a “Zionist-US strike” south of the capital. The killing of Ali Hussein al-Freiji (also known as Abu Hassan al-Freiji) marks a major escalation in the week-long regional war that has already resulted in the decapitation of Iran’s top leadership.
Ahmad al-Hamidawi, the Secretary-General of Kata’ib Hezbollah, announced on Thursday a formal statement in mourning of a “great commander” who had been a pillar of the faction for more than 20 years.
The Strike in Babil
The strike took place on Wednesday evening, in the Abu Luka area of the Alexandria subdistrict, in northern Babil province, officials and groups in Iraqi security circles said. A precision missile was reportedly fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and then it hit a vehicle of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
In the strategic Jurf al-Sakhr (Jurf al-Nasr) district, where Al-Freiji was in charge of operations, Al-Freiji was killed in one fell swoop: with his driver and a third operative. Jurf al-Sakhr has for years been an isolated military zone and a key stronghold for Kata’ib Hezbollah, a site for drone and missile strikes on U.S. interests in the area. “
Legitimate Targets”: Militia Issues Call to Action
After the funeral processions in Baghdad, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq an umbrella group of which KH is a major part issued a chilling warning. The group said it no longer differentiates U.S. assets from those of its allies. The militia specifically identified NATO allies France, Germany, and Britain and emphasized that any actor meddling in Iraq or supporting the "Zionist aggression" would have its interests deemed "legitimate targets." This comes after reports that NATO assets were deployed to intercept Iranian missiles over Turkey earlier this week.
Iraq: A Proxy Battleground
The murder of Al-Freiji also occurs at a moment when the Iraqi government, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, is frantically trying to keep the country from becoming completely embroiled in the US-Israel-Iran war. Despite Baghdad’s pleas for de-escalation, the territory of the country is being used increasingly as a launching pad for pro-Iran militias and as a target for the coalition’s retaliatory “surgical strikes.”
- Current events in the Iraq theater: Missile Seizure: According to accounts, the Iraqi army in Basra confiscated a mobile rocket launcher with two missiles primed for launch into a nearby Gulf state.
- Border Tensions: Kurdish (Peshmerga) forces have strengthened the Iranian border to protect against “infiltrations” that could result in more Iranian cross-border attacks.
The Growing Toll
Since the joint US-Israeli “Operation Epic Fury,” which saw the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, Kata’ib Hezbollah has reportedly lost over 15 high-ranking members to targeted airstrikes. The death of Al-Freiji, a combatant of the insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation and the battle against ISIS, is seen as a major blow to the group’s operational command and control in central Iraq.
