Regional intelligence assessments point to Iraq-based cooperation between Houthi fighters and Iran-backed militias, coordinated by the IRGC
Yemen's Houthi movement struck Saudi Arabia this week from launch sites inside Iraq, operating alongside Iraqi armed groups under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to an assessment by Saudi Arabia and regional partners, described to Reuters by two regional officials. The finding, if confirmed, marks the first time cross-territory coordination between the Houthis and Iraqi militias has been documented by regional intelligence services rather than claimed by the groups themselves.
The assessment resolves a contradiction that emerged after drones struck Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province and the Riyadh region on July 27-28: the Houthis publicly claimed the attack, while the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — the umbrella of Iran-backed factions — denied any role, calling Riyadh's account "fabrications." Iran-aligned media has since mourned IRGC personnel, Iraqi fighters, and at least one Houthi killed in retaliatory strikes, effectively confirming a joint operational presence on Iraqi soil.
What happened on the ground
Saudi air defenses intercepted the bulk of the July 28 drone wave, but an unidentified projectile caused a fire at the Abqaiq processing facility — the same installation whose 2019 attack briefly halved the kingdom's crude output. The Saudi Ministry of Defense attributed the assault to "Iran-affiliated terrorist militias," a formulation that avoided naming the Houthis directly, consistent with the Iraq-origin assessment now emerging.
Riyadh's response came fast. On July 29, Saudi fighter jets joined US aircraft in striking Iran-backed militias across seven Iraqi provinces — Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala — killing at least 20 Popular Mobilisation Forces fighters and, per Iranian and Iraqi media, four to six IRGC advisers. CENTCOM said the operation answered "over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours." It was Riyadh's first acknowledged military strike on Iraqi soil.
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Baghdad caught in the middle
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi cancelled a planned meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, and Iraq's presidency condemned the strikes as "a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty, targeting its official institutions." Iraqi militias issued a joint warning that retaliation "is inevitable" and may target "American tools in Saudi Arabia" after the Arbaeen pilgrimage concludes next Tuesday. The escalation compounds an already-strained front: the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20, and the current cycle traces back to the collapse of the Yemen truce two weeks earlier. Brent crude briefly topped $91 a barrel.
A Sunni kingdom has now struck Shi'a militias embedded within the Iraqi state, on territory that also hosts a Houthi presence Baghdad's government did not invite and cannot fully police. Whatever happens after Arbaeen, Iraq has moved from buffer to battleground in a war it did not choose to host.
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