ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraq-based Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada early Saturday announced the death of one of its fighters in an apparent US airstrike on Iraq-Syria border without disclosing the exact location. The pro-Iran militia group was designated by Washington in November.
Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada said in a statement that the vehicle of one of its fighters, Abdullah Razzaq al-Safi, was hit on Friday in “a treacherous American bombing,” adding that he was patrolling the Iraqi-Syrian border when the airstrike took place.
The US-led coalition has denied carrying out the attack.
“Reports stating that U.S. or coalition forces carried out an airstrike on the Iraq-Syria border on Friday are untrue. No such operation took place,” a spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Rudaw.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Friday that a “violent explosion” took place in al-Bukamal, Deir ez-Zor province on the Iraq-Syria border. The area is under the control of pro-Iran militia groups.
Several activists and experts said on X that a shipment of Iranian weaponry was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike. Rudaw English could not independently verify the information.
A shipment of Iranian weaponry was just struck in an airstrike outside Al-Bukamal in Deir ez Zour, #Syria after crossing the border from #Iraq.
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) June 21, 2024
Likely an #Israel strike. pic.twitter.com/axiry6xsAD
The US designated Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and its leader Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji in November, accusing them the group of receiving support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and involvement in dozens of attacks on American interests in Iraq and Syria since Israel’s war with Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Updated at 4:38 pm with the coalition statement
