Conflict & Security
Iraq groups say response to US-Saudi strikes inevitable
Pro-Iran Iraqi groups said Wednesday that a response to US-Saudi strikes was “inevitable”, after two sources from Hashed al-Shaabi told AFP that five Iranian advisers were among those killed in the attacks.
The Hashed al-Shaabi sources said the Iranians died in a strike in central Diyala province. AFP correspondents saw coffins wrapped in Iranian flags at a Baghdad funeral organised by Hashed al-Shaabi for people killed in the strikes.
Hashed al-Shaabi is an armed Iraqi alliance that includes pro-Iran groups. The supplied information did not give an overall death toll.
The United States and Saudi Arabia struck positions belonging to Hashed al-Shaabi. Fox News reported that US President Donald Trump said the bombing inside Iraq had been coordinated with the Iraqi government.
Iraq's presidency denounced the attacks as a “blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty”.
Update
Pro-Iran Iraqi groups said a response to the US-Saudi strikes was “inevitable”.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 15:01:53 UTC.
Update
Two Hashed al-Shaabi sources said the five Iranian advisers died in a strike in central Diyala province.
AFP correspondents saw coffins wrapped in Iranian flags at a Baghdad funeral organised by Hashed al-Shaabi for people killed in the strikes.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 14:37:16 UTC.
Update
Iraq militants said five Iranians were among those killed in the US-Saudi strikes.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 14:27:42 UTC.
Update
Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, is a network of Shia-majority factions established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group.
A 2016 law integrated the Hashed al-Shaabi into Iraq’s regular security forces.
The alliance includes brigades belonging to powerful pro-Iran armed factions that the United States blacklists as terrorist organisations.
Several pro-Iran groups are also part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq alliance, which has claimed hundreds of attacks against US facilities in Iraq and the region during the Middle East war.
Kataeb Hezbollah, Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada and the al-Nujaba movement are among the groups named in the item.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 13:17:06 UTC.
Update
The US-Saudi bombing was described as targeting pro-Iranian militias overnight inside Iraq.
Iraq's presidency denounced the US-Saudi attacks as a "blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty."
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 12:45:28 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The supplied information does not give an overall death toll from the strikes.
The source item does not identify which pro-Iran Iraqi groups said a response was inevitable.
Source
AFP news report published on .