Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces say US strike killed 15 fighters, including commander

ISTANBUL

Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said that 15 of its members, including operations commander for the Anbar region, Saad Duwa, were killed in a US strike on an operations site on Tuesday.

“The Popular Mobilization Forces mourn a group of heroic fighters who were killed alongside the Anbar Operations commander in the PMF, the martyred commander Dr. Saad Duwai, as a result of a treacherous US targeting that struck the operations headquarters,” the group said in a statement posted on Facebook.

The PMF is an official Iraqi security umbrella established in 2014 following a religious edict by top cleric Ali al-Sistani to confront the ISIS (Daesh) terrorist group and was later integrated into the armed forces by a government decision in 2016.

Recent attacks targeting the group, which have resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries among its members, come amid the ongoing war launched by Israel and the United States on Iran since Feb. 28.