American Citizen Murdered in Deliberate Attack in Iraq, No Group Claims Responsibility

An American citizen was murdered in Iraq, the US State Department confirmed. Stephen Edward Troell, 45, was fatally shot when two armed people attacked a vehicle Troell was driving in downtown Baghdad on Monday. Troell, who had lived in Baghdad for the last two years, worked for a civil society organization that taught English to Iraqis. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. New Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told reporters he believes that the attack was meant to undermine his new government. Meanwhile, late Tuesday night, at least 10 people were killed in an airstrike Tuesday night on a convoy of about 15 trucks carrying fuel that had crossed from Iraq into Syria, intended for Lebanon, The Associated Press reported, citing members of local paramilitary groups, who said some of the killed were Iranians. The area of the attack, near the Al-Qaim crossing, is said to be the base for several pro-Iranian armed groups, and previous airstrikes in the area have been blamed on Israel and the US. Some Arabic-language media, however, are reporting that the target of the airstrikes were sites belonging to the Iranian-backed militias, and that 25 of their members were killed in the attacks. Lebanese media blamed Israeli drones for the attack on the fuel tankers.