On the 25th of December, 2023, a declared U.S. airstrike was conducted against the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Hilla, central Iraq, killing two civilian men and injuring two female civilians, Shadhadan Karim Mirza, and Wasnah Maher Kahem, and another man. One member of the PMF was also killed and up to 19 other members of the PMF and other militant groups were injured. The US military initially admitted to killing one civilian and injuring two other civilians in Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR)’s quarterly civilian harm report released December 31, 2024 and later updated this to two civilians killed and one civilian injured in the Department of Defense’s 1057 annual report on civilian casualties for 2024.

On the 25th of December, the White House released a statement revealing that President Biden had “directed strikes against three locations utilized by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups focused specifically on unmanned aerial drone activities”.

On December 26th, US Central Command (CENTCOM) posted an acknowledgement on X / Twitter that “in response to multiple attacks against Coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. military forces launched airstrikes on multiple facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and its affiliated groups in Iraq at around 8:45 PM (EST) on December 25th”.

During the course of the day on December 26th, Al-Jazeera stated that the US strikes had “killed one member of the Iraqi security forces and wounded 18 people, including civilians”, whilst ‘The New Arab’ reported that “at least one person was killed and 20 wounded in a U.S. strike that targeted a site belonging to the Iran-backed PMF (Hashed al-Shaabi) forces in the central city of Hilla”.

Several local news organizations also reported on the airstrike. Altaakhi News reported that “the number of wounded among the Hashd reached 8 members, in addition to killing one of them, 8 wounded from the Academy Police, two wounded from the rescue service and one wounded from the Civil Defense, in addition to the wounding of two civilians”. An identical statement on the bombing was made by ‘Observer Iraq’ and also by Rudaw News, which additionally posted a video showing the site of the bombing. On the 26th of December, ‘Jabla al Habiba’ posted several images of the wounded being treated at a local hospital.

One independent journalist, Yasser Al Shommari, posted a list of names of those harmed as a result of the airstrike, including members of the police, the Hashd and civilians. The two civilians injured were described as two “housewives”: Shadhadan Karim Mirza and Wasnah Maher Kahem, born in Babel in 1972 and in 1971 respectively. On December 26th, the news website ‘Jabla Al Khair’ also posted an image showing a Babylon Health Department document (Ministry of Health). This document contained the names of those who had been wounded in the airstrike (including Shadhadan Karim Mirza and Wasnah Maher Kahem), in addition to the name of the one individual known to have been killed.

The PMF’s information directorate, in a Facebook post dated the 26th of December, identified the man killed as a member of the ‘45th Brigade’: Derih Ali Hassan Al-Amiri, and confirmed that his funeral had taken place.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied that any harm to civilians had occurred as a result of the airstrike, stating “there are no indications that any civilian lives were affected”.  The US military later admitted that there were civilian casualties from the strikes, stating in CJTF-OIR’s quarterly civilian harm report released December 31, 2024 that “Unfortunately, based on a thorough review of all available information, one civilian death and two civilian injuries more likely than not occurred due to a U.S. strike.” This was then updated to two civilians killed and one civilian injured in the Department of Defense’s 1057 annual report on civilian casualties for 2024, which identified the death of two adult males and the injury of one adult male as the result of an air strike “against a declared hostile force in an area of armed conflict”. In regard to their investigation, the 1057 stated that “A significant amount of reliable information was used to conduct a civilian harm assessment because of to the strike’s proximity to Coalition bases and the relatively recent timeframe of the information. Sources included military intelligence reporting, imagery, opensource reporting, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Witness interviews and site visits were not conducted.”