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3. Strike Kills Two Pro-Iran Fighters in Southern Iraq

Two fighters from the powerful Tehran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group were killed on Wednesday in a strike near their base in Iraq, as the war in the Middle East raged across multiple fronts.

Attacks were also reported in Baghdad and Erbil throughout the day, as the US embassy urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as they were able.

Two sources from Kataeb Hezbollah told AFP that the two fighters were killed when a strike hit their vehicle near the group's main bastion, the Jurf al-Nasr base.

One source called the attack a "Zionist-US strike".

The Jurf al-Nasr base was the first Iraqi target of strikes blamed on Israel and the US, which later expanded to other areas.

Since the start of the war, the strikes have killed 14 fighters, mostly from Kataeb Hezbollah.

Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the war. But it has not been spared.

Several Iran-backed armed groups -- known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to which Kataeb Hezbollah also belongs -- have said they will not stay "neutral" and have claimed dozens of drone attacks on US bases.

On Wednesday, three drones were shot down throughout the day near Baghdad International Airport, which hosts a US diplomatic facility and previously housed US-led coalition troops.

In recent days, angry pro-Iran protesters tried to storm the capital's fortified Green Zone, which hosts the US embassy and key government buildings, but security forces dispersed them.

On Wednesday, the US embassy urged its nationals to "leave Iraq now" if it was safe for them to do so.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US troops, has been the main target of drone attacks, the majority of which were intercepted by air defences.

Lound bangs were heard on Wednesday in Erbil, the region's capital, which also houses a major US consulate complex.

An AFP journalist reported that windows in a few houses were shattered by the force of one blast, and that debris from a drone or missile shot down by air defences had fallen on a residential neighbourhood.

Attacks also hit Kurdish Iranian fighters in the autonomous region who are opposed to the Islamic republic.

The exiled Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) told AFP a strike by Iran killed one of its fighters.

Iran's Guards later said that the bases of "anti-revolutionary groups were hit with success by three missiles".

Late Wednesday night, a drone and missile attack hit a camp for the families of members of the exiled Komala party, but no casualties were reported, party official Mohammed Hakimi told AFP, blaming the attack on Iran.

Iraq's Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups that have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran, which has long accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests.

AFP