US, Saudi Arabia strike Iran-backed militias in Iraq

Also on Wednesday morning, the US and Saudi Arabia launched attacks on Iran-backed groups in Iraq.

The US and Saudi Arabia said Iran-aligned groups in Iraq carried out “30 IRGC-directed” drone attacks in 72 hours.

What we know

Here is a closer look at what happened, and whether this means the war is spreading: Early on Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had fired multiple ballistic missiles at US military installations in Jordan. Also on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence said its armed forces, in coordination with CENTCOM, had conducted attacks against Iran-backed groups in Iraq after drone attacks on Saudi petroleum facilities.

CENTCOM confirmed it had carried out strikes with Saudi Arabian forces against “Iran-aligned” groups in Iraq which it claimed had attacked US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure on the orders of the IRGC. Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) said the US-Saudi attacks killed at least 20 of its fighters and wounded 32 in seven provinces.

The attacks hit PMF positions in the provinces of Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala, the state-sanctioned umbrella group of mostly Shia groups said in a statement.

The details

So diplomacy is continuing, but military pressure remains very much part of the picture.” Iran’s latest attack on Jordan follows its pattern of targeting US military assets and infrastructure in Gulf countries, which it has been doing since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28. While it has not been revealed which military sites and assets were targeted in Jordan, the country is known to host about 4,000 US soldiers who are stationed there, according to a 2026 US Congressional Research Service report. The King Faisal Air Base is a Jordanian base at which US soldiers also maintain a presence while Tower 22 is a remote US military logistics outpost in northeastern Jordan near the borders with Syria and Iraq.

Reactions

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called an emergency meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security on Wednesday after the US-Saudi attacks. The US and Saudi Arabia justified their attacks on Iraq by claiming Iran was responsible for recent drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities apparently launched from Iraqi territory. Al-Zaidi has already ordered Iraqi security agencies to investigate the drone attacks and is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia on Thursday.

What to watch

It said Saudi claims were “fabrications” and “any foolish Saudi action will be met with a harsh response”. “Both sides will eventually need a negotiated return to the now faltering MOU that they can present domestically as a defensible outcome,” she said.