A prominent hotel in central Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone was struck by a drone Monday, officials said.
Two Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the strike hit the top floor of the Rasheed Hotel, which houses diplomatic delegations and international organizations, causing damage but no casualties. Security forces cordoned off the area. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Earlier Monday, the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia announced that Abu Ali Al-Askari, a prominent security official with the group, had been killed without giving details on the circumstances. In recent days, a number of airstrikes have targeted facilities of the Iraqi militias.
Also Monday, six fighters with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a paramilitary group, were killed in a strike on a checkpoint in western Iraq’s Anbar province and two others were killed in a separate strike on a headquarters on a PMF brigade in the same area.