Iraq’s presidency on Wednesday denounced US-Saudi airstrikes carried out against Iranian-backed militias on Iraqi soil, describing them as an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of the country’s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on X, the presidential office said the bombings also targeted official Iraqi security institutions and breached international law.<\/p>\n
“Iraq rejects any attack on its territory,” the statement said, adding that the country must not be used either as a launch pad or a battleground for attacks on neighbouring states or for the settlement of regional and international conflicts.<\/p>\n
Emergency meeting called<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an emergency meeting of his National Security Council following joint US-Saudi airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militias in the country, the state news agency INA reported.<\/p>\n
The meeting in Baghdad was to focus on the security situation and the overnight strikes.<\/p>\n
The US military said it had carried out precision strikes alongside Saudi forces against several logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq.<\/p>\n
PMF details casualties<\/p>\n
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militias aligned with Iran and also known as Hashd Shaabi, said at least 20 of its fighters were killed and 32 others wounded.<\/p>\n
The PMF said the strikes targeted its headquarters and facilities in the provinces of Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala, causing extensive material damage. It added that the death toll could rise as search and verification operations continued.<\/p>\n
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes were carried out in response to more than 30 drone attacks over the previous 72 hours that it said had been directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia confirmed the strikes, saying they were conducted in self-defence after earlier attacks on the kingdom’s oil facilities that Riyadh blamed on Iranian-aligned Iraqi militias.<\/p>\n
During the ongoing conflict involving Iran, Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also come under attack from Iraq, where Tehran-aligned militias continue to wield significant influence.<\/p>\n
The PMF forms part of Iraq’s official security apparatus and holds considerable political influence within the country. The organization played a key role in the campaign against the so-called Islamic State between 2014 and 2017 and continues to operate alongside Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n
Al-Zaidi’s government has said it wants to disarm the militias, though there is little indication that will be possible in the near term. Al-Zaidi became prime minister in May.<\/p>\n
Umbrella group threatens retaliation<\/p>\n
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term used for a number of Iranian-aligned armed factions, threatened military retaliation against the United States and Saudi Arabia later Wednesday following deadly strikes that it blamed on the two countries.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the group reiterated its denial of responsibility for attacks on Saudi oil facilities and accused Washington and Riyadh of carrying out strikes on PMF bases and a convoy serving pilgrims travelling to the Shiite holy city of Karbala.<\/p>\n
The group said it was giving Iraqi authorities that had called for the disarmament of armed factions until next week to demonstrate their ability to defend the country’s sovereignty, adding that its response against what it called the “American enemy” was “inevitable” and could also target “its instruments in Saudi Arabia” if circumstances required.<\/p>\n
According to Iraqi sources, the five main factions that continue to reject disarmament are Kataib Hezbollah (Battalions of the Party of God, sometimes called the Hezbollah Brigades), Harakat al-Nujaba (Movement of the Nobles), Harakat Sayyid al-Shuhada (Movement of the Master of the Martyrs), Saraya Awliya al-Dam (Companies of the Blood Guardians) and Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave).<\/p>\n
They are widely regarded as ideologically aligned with Iran and as receiving financial and military support from the IRGC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraq’s presidency on Wednesday denounced US-Saudi airstrikes carried out against Iranian-backed militias on Iraqi soil, describing them as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[980,30690,34,94,32746,7780,8635,9673,50,64942,55900],"class_list":["post-228283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-airstrikes","tag-ali-al-zaidi","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-prime-minister","tag-iraqi-security-forces","tag-militias","tag-national-security-council","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-security-institutions","tag-the-iraqi-parliament"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117005030629147200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228283","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=228283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}