Iraq’s powerful armed group Kataeb Hezbollah said Monday that its senior security commander, Abu Ali al-Askari, had been killed, without providing details on the circumstances of his death.

The group’s leader, Ahmad al-Hamidawi, also known as Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said, “We announce the martyrdom of Haj Abu Ali al-Askari,” without providing any further details.

A security official told AFP that “Abu Ali al-Askari is Abu Ali al-Amiri, the commander who was killed in a strike on Baghdad on Saturday.”

Kataeb Hezbollah referred to Askari as the group’s security chief. He was also the spokesperson in charge of issuing all key statements in the group’s name. The last was released on March 7, following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

According to the group’s statement, Askari will be replaced by Abou Moujahed al-Assaf as the new security chief.

The Iran-backed group, designated by Washington as a terrorist organization, is part of the umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has been claiming daily attacks on the US interests in Iraq and the region.

Since the start of the current war in Iran, several attacks targeting members of those groups across Iraq have been blamed on the US and Israel. Israel is not believed to be carrying out any strikes within Iraq, but US forces have hit targets there, as Iran-backed militias have been targeting US and Kurdish sites in the country.

Kataeb Hezbollah was the group responsible for kidnapping Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov in Baghdad in March 2023, and held her hostage until she was released in September 2025.

Reacting to the news on Monday, Tsurkov wrote on X that Askari “was personally involved in keeping me captive and spreading hilarious lies about me, even after my release.”

She said he was “killed by the United States for [Kataeb Hezbollah]’s targeting of US interests in Iraq & neighboring countries. KH also killed hundreds of American servicemen. But most of the blood this man had on his hands was that of Arabs: Iraqis and Syrians.”

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