On 1 October 2017, an American soldier- Alex Missildine- was killed in an improvised explosive device attack in Iraq, marking a rare U.S. military casualty in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The operation was never claimed by the Islamic State, however, suggesting it was rather the work of a pro-Iranian Shi'i group opposed to the American presence in Iraq.
But which group did it? When in late April I first interviewed the group Ashab al-Kahf ("Companions of the Cave")- one of the most prominent newer 'resistance' groups advertising their supposed existence via Telegram- the group claimed that it had been operating since 2017. As Michael Knights suggested at the time in commenting on the interview, the group seemed to be implying that it had a role in killing Missildine. Sure enough, in May, the group formally claimed the attack though it did not offer any proof for its role beyond the claim- just as Knights had suggested.
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