U.S. and Saudi Forces Conduct Joint Airstrikes on Iran-backed Militias in Iraq
The United States and Saudi Arabia carried out coordinated strikes against Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq, prompting retaliatory missile attacks by Iran on Jordan and condemnation from Iraq’s government.
The United States and Saudi Arabia launched joint airstrikes early Wednesday against Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq, targeting the Popular Mobilization Forces' headquarters. A U.S. official said the attacks killed about 20 Iranian military and technical advisers and were in response to more than 30 drone attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure in the previous 72 hours.
"We’ll be hitting them hard," President Donald Trump said on a television interview, adding that American forces had only minutes to intercept incoming Iranian missiles.
The Saudi foreign ministry said the kingdom was not seeking escalation but would respond to any aggression. Iraq’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, called the strikes "an unacceptable aggression" and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of Shiite militias with ties to Iran, reported that at least 20 of its fighters were killed.
In a separate incident, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have fired missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan; the Jordanian military reported shooting down five of the missiles. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the U.S.–Saudi strikes as an attempt to broaden the conflict.
The attacks coincided with a surge in regional tensions, including drone assaults on Saudi oil facilities and a Houthi claim of targeting a Saudi tanker in the Red Sea. Oil prices rose sharply following the incidents.