At least 10 members of an Iraqi former paramilitary alliance were killed in US-Saudi strikes on their bases in the country.
The United States and Saudi Arabia said they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities.”
These attacks resulted in the martyrdom of a number of personnel and injuries to others, as well as material damage to several buildings and properties,” said the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as the Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic, in a statement.
A PMF official told AFP that the strikes hit positions belonging to the alliance “across several provinces, with the deadliest attack in Nineveh province, where at least 10 members were martyred,” adding that the toll would likely rise.
Injuries were reported in other provinces, he added, while another official confirmed the initial toll.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
The PMF is an alliance of paramilitaries and factions created in 2014 to fight jihadists, and is now integrated into the Iraqi armed forces.
Iran-backed groups have brigades that operate within the alliance, but many of these groups have a reputation for acting on their own.
In a statement on Wednesday, the PMF described the US-Saudi strikes as a “dangerous escalation, a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and an attack on its official security institutions”.
The US-Saudi strikes came after Riyadh said its forces had intercepted drones targeting oil facilities in the east, blaming Iran-backed groups in Iraq.
But these groups described Saudi Arabia’s accusations as “fabrications”, and warned it against attacking Iraq.
The most active pro-Iran armed groups are united under an alliance known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has interfered in support of Tehran during the Middle East war, claiming hundreds of attacks against US bases in Iraq and across the region.
But they have not claimed any attacks since hostilities between the US and Iran resumed earlier this month.
Washington and Tehran are Iraq’s main allies, but their enmity has long turned the country into a proxy battleground and left successive governments struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the foes.
Amid growing US pressure, Iraq’s new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who came to power this year with Washington’s blessing, vowed to ensure pro-Iran armed groups would hand over their weapons, but has faced pushback from some powerful factions. Earlier this month, Zaidi visited both the United States and Iran.
Houthis attack Saudi tanker in Red Sea
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels said they targeted a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles for violating a blockade on the kingdom’s ports. Saudi Arabia had yet to comment on the Houthis’ claim, but reported having intercepted drones targeting oil facilities in its east, blaming pro-Iran militias in Iraq.
“The targeting of the Saudi vessel came after it ignored warnings,” a Houthi military spokesman said, identifying the ship as the NCC Ghazal and adding it had been “forced to turn back”.
The website MarineTraffic, owned by maritime tracking firm Kpler, listed the Ghazal as a Saudi-flagged tanker whose last known location was the port of Yanbu, the terminus of an important oil pipeline on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.
Last week, the Iran-backed Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and have since claimed attacks targeting Saudi tankers and oil infrastructure.
The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia’s ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities resumed in the Middle East war, cutting off the kingdom’s only other maritime route.
Riyadh last week struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the threats to Red Sea shipping.
A spokesman for the Saudi defense ministry said late Tuesday that “aerial defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to target oil installations” in the country’s east.
The spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, added that “these new terrorist attacks were launched from Iraqi territory and carried out by militias linked to Iran”.
It was the second day in a row Riyadh had blamed Iran-backed groups in Iraq for launching attacks.
By Agence France-Presse
