A Yemeni technical expert was among the four people killed in the Tuesday US strike on Jurf al-Sakhar in Babil province, a military commander confirmed to The New Region.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said that US forces had carried out a “defensive” strike in Babil province targeting fighters who were trying to launch attack drones.

According to the senior military commander, who spoke to The New Region on the condition of anonymity, the three Kataib Hezbollah members and the Yemeni Houthi technical expert “were testing a new generation of drones” near one of the Kataib Hezbollah’s headquarters in Jurf al-Sakhar when the strike targeted them.

Previously, the Iraqi Joint Military Operations Command and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) leadership said in separate statements that a US strike led to the killing of four Iraqi PMF fighters.

However, media outlets close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday identified one of the deceased in Tuesday’s strike as Houthi Brigadier General Hussein Abdullah Mastour al-Sha’bal.

Iraqi officials condemned the Tuesday strike, claiming that it jeopardizes efforts toward shifting the nature of the relationship between Baghdad and Washington to a bilateral relationship.

The Iraqi government pledged to pursue legal and diplomatic measures to protect Iraqi sovereignty, seek justice for the victims, and address the violations by the US forces.