US military strikes with Saudi Arabia killed at least 20 members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces on Wednesday, after the two allies accused Iran-backed militants of launching drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities. The operation widened a fast-moving flare-up that had already seen Iran fire a missile barrage and the US intercept it.
Ali al-Zaidi moved quickly on Tuesday, ordering security agencies to investigate the alleged attacks and saying Iraq was committed to preventing Iraqi territory from being used as a route or launching point for any attack targeting brotherly or friendly countries. That put Iraq at the center of a confrontation it has been trying to keep from spilling further across the Middle East.
The joint strikes hit sites in Iraq used by militants the US said were linked to the drone attacks, and they killed at least 20 members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces while wounding others. The group is an Iraqi state security service that Iran has infiltrated, and the US military said its warplanes worked with Saudi Arabia forces after the alleged attacks on Saudi oil facilities in recent days.
That version of events did not go uncontested. Iraqi militias denied any role in the drone attacks, while the Islamic Resistance in Iraq called the Saudi claims fabrications and suggested Monday’s attacks were carried out by the Houthis. The Houthi side of the conflict added another layer of confusion, with the Houthis in Yemen saying they had forced a Saudi oil tanker to turn around as part of their self-styled blockade, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reporting a tanker heard explosions in the southern Red Sea but that the crew and vessel were safe.
The fighting sits inside a wider pause-and-strike cycle that has defined the past several days. Last week, the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi shipping and fired on at least one Saudi tanker in the Red Sea, then Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had struck and halted three violating oil tankers in the strait of Hormuz. Brent crude oil rose after the latest flare-up and hovered around $88 a barrel, a sign that the market is still pricing in the risk that the next round will hit ships, oil or troops again. The US warned that any further attacks on American troops or Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure would trigger retaliatory strikes.
For now, the immediate question is not whether the region is calm — it plainly is not — but whether Iraq can stop being used as a launch point before the next strike cycle moves another step closer to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf or US forces in the Middle East.
