Analysis

Iran-linked militias seek to draw Iraq into regional war

“Iran’s logic is the logic of war,” a Gulf regional official tells Al-Monitor.

Week in Review
Week in Review
Jul 31, 2026
Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on Dec. 4, 2023.
Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on Dec. 4, 2023. — AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi wants Iraq to serve as a bridge rather than a battleground between the United States and Iran.

Tehran has other ideas.

This week, Iraq again found itself on the front lines of regional tensions, thanks to its eastern neighbor.

Iran-linked militias launched a series of drone attacks on Saudi Arabia while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ballistic missiles at the US Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

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