This archive report was first published on 3 January 2020.
On January 3, 2020, a US strike targeted a convoy of the Hashed military force on the Baghdad International Airport road, killing several high-ranking officials.
According to the Hashed, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the group's deputy head, and Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, were among those killed in the strike.
Security sources confirmed that the rockets targeted a Hashed convoy, leaving eight people dead, including 'important figures.'
The Hashed is a network of mostly-Shiite armed units with close ties to Tehran, officially incorporated into Iraq's state security forces.
Al-Muhandis, widely recognized as the real leader of the group, has been blacklisted by the US.
Soleimani, who heads the Quds Force and serves as Iran's pointman on Iraq, has been a key figure in the region.
The US strike came in response to a rocket attack that killed an American contractor working in Iraq, prompting a mob of Hashed supporters to surround the US embassy in Baghdad.
