MEP: A high-ranking commander of the Iraqi pro-government Kata’ib Hezbollah force has been killed by a group of unidentified gunmen on Wednesday evening.
Bassem al-Safi was gunned down when the armed opened fire on his vehicle in the country’s southern oil-rich city of Basra, a security source told Arabic-language Mawazin news agency on Thursday.
Safi, a former representative of Basra Provincial Council, had initially suffered grave gunshot wounds and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital, according to the source.
Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of the pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, which are better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi.
Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters joined forces with Iraqi army soldiers and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in a major operation on October 17, 2016 to retake the strategic northern city of Mosul from Daesh Takfiri terrorists.