A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

US-led coalition denies conducting air strike near Baghdad


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The US-led coalition fighting ISIS said on Saturday said it was not responsible for an air strike reported north of Baghdad that Iraqi militias said had killed six people.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups said the air strike on Saturday near Camp Taji had hit a convoy of medics, killing six people and critically wounded three. Iraqi state television said they were US air strikes.

"FACT: the coalition ... did not conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days," a spokesman said on Twitter.

Soon afterwards, the Iraqi military released a statement saying there had been no air strikes in the Taji area on Saturday.

Claims circulated on social media that the alleged attack, which followed a US air strike on Friday that killed a senior Iranian general and a PMF commander, had killed the leader of an Iraqi militia.

Qassem Suleimani, who oversaw Tehran's proxy forces in the Middle East, and Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, head of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, were among 10 Iranians and Iraqis killed in the drone strike.

The attack authorised by President Donald Trump was a major escalation in the standoff between Iran and the US over strict sanctions targeting the Iranian economy.

US officials said Suleimani had been plotting attacks on US diplomats and troops in the region.

The PMF has planned an elaborate funeral procession on Saturday for both men and the eight others who died in the air strike. The procession will start in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, moving towards Karbala and ending in Najaf, both cities holy to Shiites.

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