Saudi Arabia, US strike Iran-backed groups in Iraq after drone attacks
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RIYADH, July 29 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) — Saudi forces, working with US Central Command, carried out targeted strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq accused of attacking the kingdom’s oil facilities with drones, Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday.
CENTCOM said the operation followed more than 30 drone attacks over the previous 72 hours that it attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The attacks targeted US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure, it said.
The Saudi Defence Ministry said the strikes targeted groups accused of launching attacks on oil facilities in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
Saudi Arabia was not seeking an escalation but would respond to any aggression against the kingdom, the ministry said.
Iran denied involvement in attacks on Saudi targets. An unnamed Iranian military official quoted by state broadcaster IRIB described the attribution of attacks on US interests in the region to Tehran as a “major miscalculation.”
The strikes were announced hours after Saudi Arabia said its air defences had intercepted and destroyed several drones launched from Iraq, the second such attack in less than two days.
Two members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces were wounded in an airstrike on the group’s command headquarters in the southern city of Basra, its local directorate said.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, is an umbrella organisation of predominantly Shiite paramilitary factions that has been incorporated into Iraq’s state security forces. Some of its members are aligned with Iran.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an investigation into the drone attacks on Monday and said Iraq would not allow its territory to be used to attack neighbouring countries.
Source: Reuters