The Iran-backed Houthi movement has expanded its presence in Iraq in recent years through offices and joint coordination sites with armed factions aligned with Tehran as well as activities involving drones and missiles, Iraqi intelligence sources told MBN.
The Houthis’ growing footprint in Iraq allows them to attack Saudi Arabia with drones from both the north and Yemen. Saudi Arabia says drones launched from Iraq struck its East-West oil pipeline on Sept. 10, and Saudi-U.S. strikes in Iraq in July killed a Houthi commander alongside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members and Iraqi militants. Washington has repeatedly asked Baghdad to end or curtail Houthi activity on Iraqi territory, according to the sources.
The intelligence sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the Houthis, which the U.S. State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization, are concentrated in the Jurf al-Sakhar area south of Baghdad. Kataib Hezbollah, another U.S.-designated terrorist organization backed by Iran, controls the area.
The Houthis have also set up religious, social and business offices in Baghdad, Karbala, Najaf, Maysan, Muthanna, Wasit, Babil and Diyala. Some Houthis are present in areas near the Saudi border, the sources added.
The intelligence sources said the Houthis do not operate large camps in Iraq but instead rely on headquarters and sites shared with other Iraqi armed factions.
The Houthi movement has maintained a representative office in Baghdad since June 2024, while Yemen’s internationally recognized government maintains an embassy in the Iraqi capital.
Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both also designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, have been involved in organizing the Houthis’ drone and missile work with Iraqi factions, according to the sources. A Revolutionary Guard official known as Haji Hamed and assigned to Iraq directly oversees part of the activity, they said.
The sources did not provide specific figures for the number of Houthis in Iraq, and MBN was unable to independently verify all details of the group’s reported locations or activities.
Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told MBN’s Mustafa Saadoun on the “Baghdad Hour” program that Houthi members had been killed in strikes targeting armed factions around the country.
A Houthi commander, Hussein Abdullah Mastour al-Shaabal, was killed in a U.S. strike targeting a Kataib Hezbollah site in Jurf al-Sakhar on July 30, 2024, according to The New Arab. The Washington Post later reported that al-Shaabal was a drone specialist.
In July 2026, another Houthi commander, identified as Mohammed Khaled al-Ayashi, was killed alongside members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iraqi militants in Saudi-U.S. strikes targeting sites in Iraq, Shafaq News reported.
The strikes followed attacks targeting oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
Reuters quoted regional officials as saying that Saudi and regional assessments concluded that the Houthis had participated in launching the attacks from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed factions.
More recently, Zebari added that “the Houthis had a hand in the attack on the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia.”
Drones launched from Iraq struck pumping stations along the pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions on Sept. 10, prompting Saudi Arabia to shut it down. The 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) line carries crude oil from the kingdom’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu and has become Riyadh’s main export route since the war with Iran disrupted the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran denied any direct involvement in the pipeline attack, Iraqi and Gulf sources told MBN, and instead told Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that Iraqi factions were behind it.
Despite Washington’s repeated requests that Baghdad stop Houthi activity in Iraq, one incident in 2024 illustrates the level of protection some Houthis enjoy while moving around Iraq.
According to the sources, a Houthi commander entered Iraq that year using a forged passport despite being listed on U.S. terrorism lists. Washington asked Baghdad to arrest him, but other armed factions helped him leave Baghdad International Airport before he could be detained.
The sources did not identify the commander, and MBN was unable to independently verify the details of the incident or determine the man’s whereabouts after he left the airport.
A security expert who works with an Iraqi intelligence agency told MBN, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, that the deaths of more than one Houthi commander inside Iraq over a two-year period indicate the level of coordination among Iran-backed armed groups.
He added that the Houthis “are not merely advisers,” but are participating in military activities from inside Iraq.
For years, Iran has supported, financed and armed the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi armed factions and Hamas, another U.S.-designated terrorist group, as part of a network of groups opposed to Israel and the United States. More recently, Tehran has sought to bring together Yemeni, Lebanese, Iranian and Iraqi expertise in drones and missiles inside Iraq, said security expert Saif Raad.
In his view, Iraq has become more important to Iran following the losses suffered by Hezbollah in Lebanon, given Iraq’s geographic location, its proximity to Iran and the Gulf states, and the presence of remote areas that can be used to conceal military activities.
He added that using Iraqi territory to launch drones could give Iran greater room for plausible deniability and make it more difficult to hold Tehran responsible.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
