ISTANBUL

The US-led coalition has become a factor in instability in Iraq, an Iraqi military spokesman said on Thursday.

US forces launched a drone strike in the capital Baghdad on Wednesday, killing a commander of the Kataib Hezbollah group, who Washington says was responsible for attacks against American troops in the region.

Iraqi media confirmed that Kataib Hezbollah commander Abu Baqir al-Saadi was killed in an airstrike on his vehicle east of Baghdad.

“American forces have repeated irresponsibly all the actions that would undermine the established understandings and hinder the initiation of bilateral dialogue,” Yehia Rasool said in a statement.

“It conducted a blatant assassination through an airstrike in the heart of a residential neighborhood in the capital, Baghdad, showing no regard for civilian lives or international laws.”

The spokesman accused the US forces of violating Iraqi sovereignty and disregarding the safety and lives of Iraqi citizens.

"This trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict," Rasool said.

“Our armed forces cannot neglect their constitutional duties and responsibilities, which demand safeguarding the security of Iraqis and the land of Iraq from all threats,” he added.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of militants that includes the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, has been carrying out drone and missile attacks on US forces in the region for months amid Israel's ongoing war against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Last month, a suicide drone attack killed three American troops at Tower 22, a remote military installation in Jordan near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq subsequently claimed responsibility.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio