ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi government spokesperson said late Thursday that the US-Saudi airstrikes targeting the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were carried out without Baghdad’s prior knowledge, after US President Donald Trump claimed the attacks were coordinated with Iraq.
“The government had no prior knowledge of the attacks carried out on Iraqi territory,” Haider al-Aboudi told the state-owned Iraqi News Agency (INA), noting that “the government has not granted any approval to carry out attacks on specific sites or targeted groups within Iraqi territory.”
Aboudi said that the Iraqi government “formed investigative committees regarding Riyadh's allegations, and they were not proven,” calling on Riyadh “to share the security information it possesses in order to verify it.”
His remarks came after joint US-Saudi airstrikes targeted PMF headquarters across Iraq in the early hours of Wednesday in response to two attacks on a Saudi oil field blamed on Iran-aligned militias in Iraq. The PMF reported an initial toll of 20 dead and 32 wounded across Baghdad, Kirkuk, Nineveh, Karbala, Diyala, Wasit, and Basra provinces.
The strikes marked the first widespread attack on the PMF since the US and Iran entered a period of negotiations following the war that began in late February.
“The bombardment of seven Iraqi provinces resulted in more than 18 martyrs and 20 wounded from the Popular Mobilization Forces,” Aboudi stated.
Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that the overnight US-Saudi strikes against Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq had been “coordinated” with the Iraqi government.
The PMF was established in 2014 during the Islamic State group’s (ISIS) blitz across Iraq, which saw the group seize large parts of the country’s north and west. It was later integrated into the state security apparatus, but some of its factions have largely acted independently of the government despite being officially under the command of the prime minister in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iran-backed factions that overlaps with the PMF, sided with Tehran in late February when the US and Israel launched a large-scale military campaign against Iran. As tensions between Washington and Tehran fluctuate, the group continues to attack US interests in the region.
The IRI reiterated in a statement on Wednesday that it had not carried out attacks against Saudi Arabia and warned that it would respond.
