Iraqi officials suspect Israel hit militia air defense depots

Iraqi authorities believe Israel launched strikes on two sites where Iran-backed militias stored shoulder-fired air defense systems from China. The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported the findings on Saturday, citing sources who said the weapons were supplied by Tehran. The strikes occurred last week, though the report did not specify the exact model of the systems involved.

One source told the newspaper that the armed group selected a location that was very hard to reach or detect. The suspected attack happened soon after the shipments arrived at both sites. The report noted that it lacked hard evidence and acknowledged that some details remained unconfirmed. A security official stated that Iraqi authorities had not determined the exact nature of the strikes but had seen enough to attribute them to Israel.

The timeline includes an explosion on October 17 at a Popular Mobilization Forces base in Baghdad's East Canal area. The PMF, an umbrella body for many Iranian-backed militias and a government paramilitary force, described the blast as an accident. The Iraqi government promised an investigation. The newspaper reported that the blast hit a stockpile of obsolete ammunition and injured five people. An anonymous official said authorities were still looking into the circumstances, even though more than a week had passed without an update.

Sources linked the mid-October blast to an incident on October 1, when warehouses in and around Baghdad were hit. Those sites reportedly held drones for suicide attacks and reconnaissance. The newspaper connected these events to earlier reports of China supplying weapons to Iran, a link it described as unconfirmed. China's Foreign Ministry denied those specific reports on July 28.

Iraq is not new to pointing fingers at Israel. Militias blamed Israel for strikes in 2019 and a hit in Albukamal, Syria, near the Iraqi border. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel set up a secret airstrip in Iraq during its campaign against Iran. Asharq Al-Awsat also cited unconfirmed accounts of Israeli fighter jets flying through Iraqi airspace near the Iranian border with midair refueler support.

Iran has armed Iraqi militias for years with missiles and drones capable of threatening Israel. After Hamas began its war on October 7, 2023, these groups carried out many attacks on Israel. Since the US and Israel began airstrikes in February, Iran has sought to make Iraq a frontline. It has conducted more than 1,000 strikes on the Kurdistan Region and, with allied militias, launched 600 attacks across Iraq, some aimed at US diplomatic sites. The US withdrew its forces from Iraq on September 30.

A source in the Shi'ite Coordination Framework said ruling party leaders predicted renewed war between Washington and Tehran would begin with the destruction of Iraqi factions' capabilities. Most major PMF groups, aside from the Badr Organization, are sanctioned by the US as terrorist organizations. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a collection of militias that has attacked Israel and the US, published a statement claiming Iraqi airspace was being violated.