Iraq says it did not approve U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces sites, adding a sovereignty dispute to the latest widening of the Iran crisis.
The Guardian reported Thursday that an Iraqi government spokesperson said Baghdad had “no prior knowledge” of the attacks and had not granted approval for strikes on specific sites or groups inside Iraqi territory. The same live report said Iraq’s prime minister would postpone a trip to Saudi Arabia after the attacks.
That matters because President Donald Trump had claimed the strikes were coordinated with Iraq’s government. Baghdad’s denial turns the strike story into a three-way political crisis: Washington and Riyadh say they are answering attacks by Iran-backed groups, while Iraq says its territory cannot become an open battleground.
What Happened In Iraq
The Associated Press reported that the U.S.-Iran conflict appears to have entered a new phase as Saudi Arabia publicly joined military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies. AP said the escalation came as diplomacy faltered again and both sides carried out strikes within 24 hours.
Al Jazeera reported that Iraq’s PMF said at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 wounded in joint Saudi-U.S. strikes on sites across Iraq. Saudi Arabia and U.S. Central Command said the strikes targeted Iran-backed militias responsible for attacks on American troops and Saudi energy infrastructure.
The Saudi Ministry of Defence said the strikes were a response to drone attacks that targeted petroleum facilities in Saudi Arabia and were launched from Iraqi territory by Iran-aligned militias. It also said the kingdom did not seek escalation but would respond to aggression.
Baghdad Pushes Back
The Iraqi presidency condemned the raids as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, according to both the Guardian and Al Jazeera. The PMF, also known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi, is formally part of Iraq’s security structure, even though several of its powerful factions are closely aligned with Iran.
The Guardian’s earlier coverage said the attacks killed at least 20 PMF fighters and pushed the region into “uncharted territory,” citing analysts who warned that Saudi Arabia’s overt role removed another layer of ambiguity from the war. It also reported that Iraq was heavily affected by the Strait of Hormuz disruption and had tried to balance pressure from both Washington and Tehran.
Baghdad’s latest denial sharpens that balancing problem. If Iraq is seen as unable to stop strikes launched from, into, or across its territory, the Iran war can keep widening without Iraq formally choosing a side.
Why This Is A New Flashpoint
List25 has already covered today’s Kuwait strike, Qeshm Island casualty claim, Hormuz tanker fire, Qatar LNG movement, and Saudi Red Sea coalition push. The new angle here is different: Iraq is openly disputing the authorization story behind U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed forces inside Iraq.
That creates a diplomatic problem layered on top of the military one. Saudi Arabia is signaling it will hit back at Iran-aligned groups it blames for attacks. The United States is backing that escalation. Iraq, caught between both sides and Iranian influence networks at home, is saying it did not sign off.
With U.S. strikes on Iran also resuming after the Jordan base attack, the Iraq dispute shows how quickly the crisis is moving from a U.S.-Iran fight into a regional contest over who can use whose territory, and who gets blamed when the next strike lands.