{"id":227984,"date":"2026-07-29T16:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/227984\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:19:12","slug":"us-saudi-arabia-strike-iranian-backed-militias-in-iraq-after-militia-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/227984\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Saudi Arabia strike Iranian-backed militias in Iraq after militia attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A US sailor signals \u201can F\/A-18E Super Hornet on the deck of USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) as the aircraft carrier transits the Arabian Sea.\u201d (US Central Command on X<\/a>) <\/p>\n

US Central Command (CENTCOM) and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Armed Forces carried<\/a> out strikes on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the evening of July 28 after several days of escalating attacks<\/a> by the militias on Saudi Arabia. In addition to targeting Saudi Arabia from July 26 to 28, the militias targeted<\/a> the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq on July 26. The attacks took place as Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaidi visited<\/a> Turkey on July 28 and came in the wake of his trips to Iran<\/a> and the US earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks<\/a> in the last 72 hours,\u201d CENTCOM announced<\/a> on July 28. \u201cFrom February through April 2026, there were more than 600 attempted attacks on U.S. citizens and facilities by Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq,\u201d CENTCOM added<\/a>. The US accused Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of directing the Iraqi militias to carry out the attacks.<\/p>\n

The US has pressured<\/a> Iraq\u2019s new prime minister, Ali al Zaidi, to rein in and disarm the militias in his country. Over the last decade, the US has sanctioned<\/a> numerous Iranian-backed Iraqi militias as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). In April, Washington also offered rewards<\/a> for information on leaders of three powerful militias in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The militias have not backed down from their threats and attacks. In July, Abu Ala al Walai, commander of Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada, one of the sanctioned militias, supported<\/a> the Iranian-backed Houthis in their attempt to blockade Saudi Arabia. On July 27, Iraq\u2019s Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani accused<\/a> militias that are operating near Mosul of targeting Erbil. On July 27, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said that Saudi Arabia had been targeted<\/a> by drone attacks from Iraq. On July 28, the Kingdom of Jordan also said<\/a> it had intercepted drone attacks overnight. It did not specify the origin of the drones but noted they were downed<\/a> in the eastern desert, which is near Iraq.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said on July 29 that at least 20 of its members had been killed<\/a> in the retaliatory strikes by the US and Saudi Arabia. The PMF is an official Iraqi paramilitary organization that includes most of the Iranian-backed militias.<\/p>\n

Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr condemned<\/a> the US and Saudi attacks on Iraq while also condemning the militias. Sadr, who has been involved in politics for two decades and leads the Saraya al Salam militia, announced in May that the militia would accept<\/a> government authority as part of Zaidi\u2019s drive to disarm the militias. \u201cI condemn the targeting of sacred Iraqi territories by all states and entities and condemn the actions of brazen militias to drag Iraq into a useless war,\u201d Sadr said<\/a> on July 29.<\/p>\n

Iraqi Prime Minister al Zaidi convened<\/a> \u201can emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security today\u201d in the wake of the US and Saudi strikes, according<\/a> to Iraq\u2019s Security Media Cell, the official public relations and press office for the Iraqi Armed Forces. Zaidi had returned<\/a> to Baghdad overnight on July 28 after a trip to Turkey.<\/p>\n

Several leading Iraqi politicians and entities condemned the US and Saudi strikes, including the office<\/a> of the President of the Republic of Iraq, Deputy Speaker of Parliament<\/a> Adnan Faihan al Dulami, former Speaker<\/a> of Parliament Mohammed al Halbousi, former Prime Minister<\/a> Mohammed Shia al Sudani, head of the Badr<\/a> Organization Hadi al Amiri, and the head<\/a> of the Asaib Ahl al Haq militia Qais Khazali. In addition, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that conducts military operations against US forces, said it would hold a meeting to discuss<\/a> a response to the strikes.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDD\u2019s Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).<\/p>\n

Tags: Iraq<\/a>, Iraqi militias<\/a>, PMF<\/a>, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, US-Iraq<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US sailor signals \u201can F\/A-18E Super Hornet on the deck of USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[94,2556,2557,50,27961],"class_list":["post-227984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-militias","tag-pmf","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-us-iraq"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117004177669627353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}