Riyadh joins US air strikes inside Iraq, 20 killed
US and Saudi fighter jets hit seven sites across eastern Iraq, among them the Popular Mobilisation Forces headquarters in Baghdad. The PMF reports at least 20 dead and 32 wounded.
Saudi and American fighter jets flew a joint mission over eastern Iraq in the early hours of Wednesday, July 29, hitting targets on the ground. Going by the statements released so far, this is the first time Riyadh has publicly owned an air operation on Iraqi soil since the war between the United States and Iran began. Serbia has no troops anywhere near the Gulf, but it does buy fuel priced off a barrel that moves every time a Saudi refinery burns and every time the answer comes.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the Iraqi paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iranian factions, said on Telegram that at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 wounded. The count is preliminary and may rise. Seven locations were struck, including the PMF headquarters in Baghdad. Footage from Diyala province showed soldiers and rescue crews picking through the rubble of a collapsed building.
What CENTCOM said
US Central Command, CENTCOM, framed the operation as an answer to three days of drone attacks.
US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons storage sites across eastern Iraq, as a forceful response to more than 30 aerial drone attacks directed by the Revolutionary Guard over the past 72 hours.
The same statement carried a line addressed to Tehran: “The IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response.”
The drones had been launched from Iraqi territory at petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and around Riyadh, where Saudi air defences shot them down. The Saudi Ministry of Defence described its own strikes as precise and targeted, with one caveat: “The Kingdom emphasises that it does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression it faces.”
Baghdad caught in the middle
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi convened an emergency session of the Ministerial Council for National Security. He had already ordered the security services to find out who is launching drones at Saudi Arabia, and he travels to Riyadh on Thursday. The PMF, formally part of the Iraqi security apparatus, called the strikes a highly dangerous escalation and a breach of Iraqi sovereignty.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq denied any role in the attacks on Saudi facilities, dismissed the Saudi account as fabrication and warned: “Any foolish Saudi move will be met with a harsh response.”
Why does Riyadh move into Iraq now?
Because the pause Washington called did not ground the drones. The American bombing campaign against Iran was halted on Friday, and the five-day lull was meant to open a diplomatic channel. We wrote at the time about drones still flying at Saudi and Israeli targets despite Trump’s pause, and the pattern has only hardened since: more than 30 attempted attacks in three days.
On Tuesday evening Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired several ballistic missiles at American forces, and CENTCOM said all of them were intercepted. By Wednesday morning the reply had arrived from the air, with two signatures on it instead of one.
That redraws the map of the war. Until now Iraq was the launch pad and Saudi Arabia the target; now Iraq is also where Saudi pilots drop their bombs, with American cover. The emergency session in Baghdad and al-Zaidi’s trip to Riyadh on Thursday are the first fixed dates by which to judge whether the prime minister can keep any grip on forces that answer to him on paper and that Riyadh has just labelled the enemy.
