U.S. military and Saudi Arabian forces conducted joint precision strikes "against Iran-linked terrorists" in Iraq, according to the U.S. Central Command, UNN reports.
Details
Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that the strikes targeted groups that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "ordered to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure."
"U.S. and Saudi fighter jets struck numerous terrorist logistics and weapons facilities across eastern Iraq in response to over 30 drone attacks carried out by the IRGC over the past 72 hours," CENTCOM stated .
A U.S. official, as CNN notes, said the IRGC had been attacking Saudi partners since the weekend without any provocation. "This is a clear signal that we will not leave these attempts unanswered," the official told CNN.
Saudi Arabia's involvement in the strikes is notable, as the kingdom has largely resisted being fully drawn into the conflict, but has recently increasingly become a target for Iran-backed proxies in Iraq and Houthis attacking their ships around the Red Sea.
The Saudi Ministry of Defense, for its part, said that on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia, together with the U.S., carried out "limited, targeted strikes" against Iran-backed militias in Iraq that were linked to attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
Earlier, the ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed several drones launched from Iraq, aimed at oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia "does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression against it," the Saudi Defense Ministry statement said.
This is the first time Riyadh has taken responsibility for carrying out strikes inside Iraq since the start of the Iran-U.S. war.
Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly struck by Iran throughout the war but has largely refrained from a military response.
An Iranian-backed Iraqi militia said several of its bases across Iraq were targeted by U.S. and Saudi airstrikes early Wednesday.
According to preliminary information, as a result of the strikes, which also damaged several buildings, "several" people were killed and wounded, the Popular Mobilization Forces said in a statement.
"We consider this shelling an extremely dangerous escalation, a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, and an attack on its official security institutions," the Popular Mobilization Forces stated.
U.S. military and Saudi Arabian forces said on Wednesday they conducted joint strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq in response to attacks on U.S. troops and Saudi oil facilities.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), CNN explains, is an umbrella organization within Iraq's official security forces that Iran increasingly uses to exert its influence in the neighboring country. It mostly consists of Shia paramilitary groups.
It was established in 2014 when ISIS militants were advancing through Iraq. Calling on Iraqis to volunteer to serve alongside state forces, the government united new volunteers and existing militias under the PMF umbrella. It played a key role in defeating ISIS and reclaiming Iraqi territory before being officially incorporated into the state security apparatus in 2016.
Some powerful militias within the PMF have close ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and are part of Tehran's "Axis of Resistance" in the region, alongside groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. These Tehran-backed PMF groups have often carried out attacks on the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East, CNN reports.