Houthi drone expert among those killed in U.S. strike in Iraq


A Yemeni drone specialist who had traveled to Iraq to train other Iranian-backed fighters was among those killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad last week, American and Iraqi defense officials said, illustrating the extensive cooperation among militant groups supported by Tehran.

The July 30 airstrike in Musayib, a town south of Iraq’s capital, targeted militants preparing to launch an attack on U.S. forces, officials have said. The strike killed Hussein Abdullah Mastoor al-Shabal, a Houthi commander, though the Pentagon was unaware of who he was until after an assessment of the operation’s results, said the U.S. official, who like others in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the airstrike.

Read more…
Source: The Washington Post


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • India: Three injured as IED planted by Maoists explodes in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur

    July 14, 2025

    The incident took place on Sunday (July 13, 2025) evening when the three persons, residents of Dhangol village under Madded police station limits, had gone to a nearby forest to collect mushrooms, a police official said. They inadvertently came in contact with the pressure IED, which exploded causing injuries to their legs and faces, the official ...

  • Iowa: Man allegedly hid pipe bombs on golf course, detonated one

    July 13, 2025

    A man was arrested after he allegedly planted multiple pipe bombs on a golf course, with one exploding before authorities could defuse it. According to police statements obtained by local outlet KCCI, an explosion rocked the Waveland Golf Course on July 3 in the middle of the night. The course was closed, so luckily nobody was hurt, ...

  • Sudan reports 51 mine explosions, 23 deaths since war began

    July 12, 2025

    At least 23 people have been killed and 51 injured in 51 separate incidents involving landmines and other explosive remnants of war since Sudan’s conflict began last year, a government official said on Saturday. Both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been accused of laying hundreds of mines in conflict zones ...

  • ISWAP’s emergence as epicentre of the Islamic State’s jihadism

    July 12, 2025

    A new infographic released by ISIS’s Amaq Agency over the weekend paints a revealing picture of the group’s global operations during the first half of the year. The data, drawn from across ISIS’s various wilayat (provinces), confirms a trend that has been developing over the past few years: the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has ...

  • Yemen: At least five children killed in blast in Taiz

    July 12, 2025

    At least five children in southwestern Yemen have died after an explosive device detonated in a residential area where they were playing football, rights groups and witnesses said. On Saturday, the Yemen Center for Human Rights and another rights group called Eye of Humanity, along with Houthi-controlled Al Masirah TV, said an artillery shell was fired ...

  • Colombia: Military operation leads to the neutralization of improvised explosive devices

    July 11, 2025

    Within the framework of focused military operations and as part of the work of the sustained military operation to increase the security and institutional control of the territory, troops of the Rapid Deployment Force No. 6 of the Sixth Division of Colombian National Army, through a tactical maneuver executed by troops of the Rapid Deployment ...

  • Nigeria: Boko Haram IED attacks killed 121 civilians, soldiers and CJTF personnel in 16 months

    July 9, 2025

    At least 121 civilians and security personnel have reportedly died from Boko Haram Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions in Borno and Yobe states, data compiled by Daily Trust has revealed. According to the data, 77 civilians, 27 soldiers and 17 members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) were killed in Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions ...

  • UK: Man’s homemade explosives led to street evacuation

    July 9, 2025

    A man has been jailed for throwing acid and making explosives in a “home laboratory” inside his flat in Derbyshire over the course of 15 years. Police cordoned off streets and evacuated 35 homes after finding explosive materials in a search in Kingsley Avenue, Chesterfield, in July 2024 immediately following an acid attack. Robert Spinks, 52, ...

  • Pakistan: Bomb defused in Lakki Marwat

    July 9, 2025

    The police on Tuesday defused a bomb in the Michenkhel area of Lakki Marwat district. An official said that local residents spotted a suspected object along a dirt track in the urban locality and informed police. The cops stopped movement of individuals and vehicles on the road for some time while the BDS personnel defused the ...

  • Finland and Lithuania set to produce anti-personnel mines

    July 9, 2025

    Lithuania and Finland look set to start domestic production of anti-personnel landmines next year to supply themselves and Ukraine because of what they see as the military threat from Russia, officials from the two NATO member states told Reuters. The two countries, which border Russia, have announced their intention to pull out of the Ottawa Convention ...

  • Kenya: Seven police officers injured in Mandera IED attack

    July 9, 2025

    Seven police officers were injured early Tuesday morning after their patrol vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) along the Gadudia-Laga Road in Mandera East, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The officers were travelling from Bambo towards Mandera town when the blast occurred at around 1:00 am between Aresa and Khalalio, roughly four kilometres west ...

  • Northern Ireland: Explosive device seized by police in south Armagh

    July 9, 2025

    An explosive device and a number of other items have been seized by police in south Armagh. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said officers recovered and made safe an improvised explosive device, and removed a number of items following a house search in Keady. They were taken away for further forensic examinations. It came ...

  • Pakistan: One dead, three children injured in KP’s Bannu after quadcopter attacks by militants

    July 9, 2025

    One person was killed while three children were injured after militants carried out two quadcopter attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Wednesday, according to police. The incident comes after reports of multiple quadcopter and drone attacks in KP and Balochistan over the past year. In March, at least 11 people were killed in Mardan in ...

  • Kenya: At least 31 dead, 532 arrested in Kenya’s antigovernment protests

    July 9, 2025

    The death toll from antigovernment protests in Kenya has surged to at least 31 people, the country’s human rights commission said, with at least 107 others wounded during the nationwide marches. In a statement on Tuesday, the National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) also reported two forced disappearances in the wake of Monday’s marches, which commemorated ...

  • Latest Sea Breeze Exercise Focuses on Mines in the Black Sea

    July 8, 2025

    For the third year in a row, the U.S. and partner nations, including Ukraine, have their eyes on the Black Sea’s future and how to deal with the thousands of mines in the region. The Black Sea is currently closed to the U.S. and other non-Black Sea nations after Turkey closed the Bosphorus Strait to warships ...

  • Israel: 5 IDF soldiers killed, 14 wounded in IED attack in northern Gaza

    July 8, 2025

    The Israel Defense Forces named four soldiers had been killed fighting in the northern Gaza Strip Beit Hanoun on Monday, with another also killed in the same incident. Fourteen soldiers were also wounded as the 97th Battalion (Netzah Yehuda) faced an IED attack. The battalion’s losses included Staff Sergeant Noam Aharon Musgadian, Sergeant Moshe Nissim Frech, ...

  • Philippines: WW2 bombs, Japanese grenade found at Philippine General Hospital

    July 7, 2025

    Two vintage World War II bombs and a Japanese grenade have been unearthed on the ground floor of Salcedo Hall at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) on Monday, 7 July. In an announcement released by the UP-PGH Physicians’ Association, the bombs were found during a construction. It added that the Manila Police District ...

  • Vietnam: Three cluster bombs safely detonated in Quang Tri province

    July 7, 2025

    A mobile explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team from NPA/RENEW successfully neutralised three dangerous cluster munitions found in residential areas in the central province of Quang Tri, following reports from local residents. On July 3, a local woman discovered an unexploded ordnance near a community centre and kindergarten of Rao Truong hamlet in Ben Quan commune. The ...

  • Mexico: Criminal groups are using drone bombings to displace indigenous communities in Northwest

    July 7, 2025

    In recent months, more than a dozen Indigenous communities in northwest Mexico have been violently displaced from their lands by criminal organizations. Drawn by the promise of gold and other valuable minerals, these groups have escalated their tactics—using drones armed with explosives to terrorize residents and forcibly drive them out. According to witness accounts, residents in ...

  • Pakistan: Three officers injured in blast on highway police vehicle in Balochistan’s Nasirabad

    July 7, 2025

    Three cops were injured in an attack on a highway police vehicle in Balochistan’s Nasirabad District on Monday, an official said. Highway Police’s Senior Superintendent of Police Khadim Husain said that the incident took place when the highway police team was patrolling the area as per routine. Citing preliminary reports, Husain said the blast was conducted through ...

  • Israel: IDF strikes targets in Yemen, Houthis launch 2 ballistic missiles

    July 7, 2025

    The Israel Defense Forces said that it had struck Houthi targets overnight in the Yemeni coastal cities of Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and al-Salif; hours later, the Iran-backed terror group launched ballistic missiles, triggering sirens in the Dead Sea area. Israeli warplanes hit about 20 targets, including the ship Galaxy Leader, which was hijacked and used for ...

  • Turkey: 12 soldiers die in methane gas incident in northern Iraq

    July 7, 2025

    Twelve Turkish soldiers died after being exposed to methane gas during a search operation in northern Iraq, the Turkish National Defense Ministry reported on Monday. The soldiers were carrying out a sweep operation in a cave at an altitude of 852 meters (2,795 feet) used by militants of the outlawed PKK terror group in the Operation ...