"We know who carried out this terrorist act—they are the American forces—and the response will be very harsh and earth-shattering," a spokesperson for the Nujaba Movement told Newsweek.

It is one of several armed factions in Iraq that have ties to Iran and have participated in a months-long campaign of rocket and drone strikes under the banner of the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" against U.S. forces in response to U.S. support for Israel's offensive against Hamas and allied Palestinian factions in Gaza..
The movement, whose political chief vowed to only escalate attacks against U.S. troops in response to airstrikes during an interview with Newsweek last month, is also part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella of paramilitary groups organized to battle the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) nearly a decade ago.

A Popular Mobilization Forces headquarters was reportedly targeted Thursday in an unclaimed drone strike resulting in the deaths of at least four people, including Nujaba Movement commander Abu Taqwa al-Saidi, garnering condemnation from Iraq's political and security sectors.