A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi told Rudaw on Thursday that there’s no evidence a drone attack against Saudi oil infrastructure was launched from Iraqi territory, a claim that was used to justify major US-Saudi strikes on Iraq.
Sabah al-Numan said that despite the lack of evidence, Iraq was still looking into the claims. “Despite the absence of any evidence or proof to substantiate the Saudi claims regarding [drone] attacks against its territories originating from Iraq, technical committees were nonetheless formed by the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to verify this matter,” he said.
The Iraqi National Security Council said on Wednesday that US-Saudi strikes came as “the Iraqi government was communicating with the concerned parties to verify and address” Saudi Arabia’s claims “regarding the targeting of Saudi territories [from Iraq].” Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who recently visited Trump in Washington, canceled a planned trip to Saudi Arabia over the attacks.
The attacks killed at least 20 members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shia militias formed in 2014 to fight ISIS, and four members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who, according to Iranian media, were working as security guards in Karbala, a holy city for Shia Muslims, as pilgrims traveling there for the upcoming Arbaeen holiday.
A report from Reuters on Thursday said that Saudi Arabia assessed that Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, attacked Saudi territory from Iraq, but there’s been no verification of the claim. Ansar Allah did take credit for the attacks, but the group gave no indication that the strikes were launched from Iraq, as its missiles and drones fired from Yemen can reach deep inside Saudi Arabia.
