An attack on a Saudi oil pipeline was carried out by small armed groups that recently broke away from established Iraqi factions aligned with Tehran, Iraqis familiar with the matter told MBN.
An Iraqi intelligence source told MBN that the “small cells” operate independently of the larger factions and are linked to the “most hardline wing” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Washington designates as a terrorist organization.
The groups generally consist of five to 10 members. They travel in civilian vehicles, wear no military uniforms and operate without a public name. Their activities are limited to drone attacks, according to Iraqi sources who spoke to MBN.
Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it was suspending operations of its East-West pipeline as a precaution after a drone attack on Thursday. Riyadh said the attack originated in Iraq, where Iran-backed factions are active.
The Iraqi government confirmed that the attacks were launched from inside Iraq.
According to Iraqi sources, Saudi Arabia threatened to retaliate before issuing a statement saying the kingdom had “chosen not to respond at this stage” and would support the Iraqi government’s efforts to “prevent attacks launched from Iraqi territory against the kingdom and neighboring countries.”
The Iraqi government issued a statement in parallel, praising “the kingdom’s position and its response to the efforts made by Iraq to contain the situation.”
Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the commander in chief of Iraq’s armed forces, said Friday that Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had ordered an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attacks and “the parties behind them.” Zaidi also ordered legal action against those involved, saying the state “will not tolerate any activity that puts Iraq or its relations at risk.”
Zaidi dismissed the commander of operations and the police chief in Maysan province, which borders Iran, after it was established that the attacks had originated in the province. He also ordered the closure of the border with Iran in Maysan.
A source in the Iraqi prime minister’s office told MBN that the investigation into the Saudi pipeline attack “is still ongoing” and that the government “does not rule out the involvement of parties other than the known traditional factions.”
The source added that armed factions, including Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which Washington designates as a terrorist organization, had “informed the government that they would provide it with information about the group that attacked Saudi Arabia.”
Asaib Ahl al-Haq was among several factions belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces that agreed in June to hand over their weapons ahead of a deadline set by the Iraqi government for the end of September.
A political source close to the Popular Mobilization Forces told MBN that preliminary information available to him and Iraqi security agencies indicated that the group behind the operation was a small faction that had broken away from an armed group that had agreed to surrender its weapons. He declined to identify the faction.
He added that the attack had opened a rift between factions that had agreed to disarm and those refusing to do so, “because those who refuse to disarm have an opportunity to carry out these operations.”
Zaidi’s government is facing mounting U.S. pressure to disarm the factions, fueling tensions in recent weeks as several groups refuse to give up their weapons. Among the most prominent are Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, both of which are designated by the United States as terrorist organizations.
Iraqi intelligence sources told MBN in August that Lebanese and Iranian figures who entered Iraq in March and April were directing drone launches, most of which originated along Iraq’s eastern border.
Saif Raad, a specialist in security and intelligence affairs, said in a previous interview on MBN’s Baghdad Hour program that the groups “are led by foreign figures, including Houthi leaders, Lebanese leaders and Iranian leaders.”
Last August, MBN obtained information from Iraqi sources and people familiar with the country’s security affairs indicating that the network was directly linked to a man identified as Haji Hamed, described as the chief adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that its members were driven by an ideological commitment to Iran’s revolutionary system.
This is not the first time Saudi Arabia has said attacks on critical sites were launched from Iraq. On July 28, the United States and Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes against Iran-aligned armed factions in Iraq after accusing them of launching drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
U.S. Central Command said at the time that the strikes targeted groups directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out attacks against U.S. forces and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
MBN reported at the time that five advisers to the Revolutionary Guard, which Washington designates as a terrorist organization, were killed in the airstrikes. The sources said they were killed at the Abu Muntadhar al-Muhammadawi camp in Diyala province, which borders Iran.
The Popular Mobilization Forces said at the time that “at least 20 people” were killed and 32 others wounded in strikes that hit its headquarters in Baghdad, Wasit, Nineveh, Basra, Kirkuk, Karbala and Diyala provinces, causing “varying degrees of material damage.”
Iraq has also felt the fallout from the war in the Middle East that erupted in late February, as Iran-aligned armed factions joined attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, the Gulf states and Jordan, prompting U.S. strikes in response.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
