{"id":792277,"date":"2026-07-29T23:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792277\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T23:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:54:15","slug":"united-states-and-saudi-arabia-strike-iran-backed-militias-in-iraq-killing-fighters-who-21-outlets-blamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792277\/","title":{"rendered":"United States And Saudi Arabia Strike Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq, Killing Fighters: who 21 outlets blamed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strikes in Iraq<\/p>\n

The United States and Saudi Arabia carried out joint air strikes on Wednesday against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, with NPR saying the operation killed at least 20 fighters and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) reporting 32 wounded.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201ckilling at least 20 fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NPR\"NPR<\/a><\/p>\n

NPR reported that Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American forces in the Middle East early Wednesday as the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Tehran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"AlAl Jazeera<\/a><\/p>\n

The BBC said the U.S. Central Command stated that “The IRGC does not have the authority to determine the course through the Strait of Hormuz,” while also reporting that five IRGC members were killed in Iraq.<\/p>\n

In the same BBC account, CENTCOM framed the strikes in the context of demanding disarmament of Iran-aligned groups in the region, and it described the campaign as being conducted simultaneously, especially in Iraq and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Competing claims and threats<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia said the strikes were \u201cin response to recent drone attacks\u201d and that its air defences \u201cintercepted and destroyed several drones\u201d launched from Iraqi territory, while the Islamic Resistance in Iraq denied any role and said Saudi claims were \u201cfabrications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera reported that the PMF said the U.S.-Saudi attacks represented a \u201chighly dangerous escalation\u201d and a violation of Iraq\u2019s sovereignty and official security institutions.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"BBC\"BBC<\/a><\/p>\n

In the same Al Jazeera account, the Saudi Ministry of Defence also emphasized that \u201cThe Kingdom emphasises that it does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression it faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian described the strikes as pushing the region into \u201cuncharted territory,\u201d and it quoted Donald Trump saying the U.S. would be \u201cbe hitting [Iran] hard,\u201d while also noting Baghdad\u2019s condemnation.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake next<\/p>\n

NPR said the flare-up on multiple fronts after several days of relative calm raised the risk of a return to all-out war and underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict.<\/p>\n

DW reported that CENTCOM said it continues to \u201cimpartially\u201d enforce a naval blockade against ships looking to dock in or depart from Iranian ports, and it added that as of July 29 CENTCOM had redirected 20 commercial vessels, disabled two, and boarded two.<\/p>\n

The Express Tribune reported that CENTCOM said American forces helped approximately 1,000 vessels and 500 million barrels of crude oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz since early May, while also quoting CENTCOM\u2019s claim that \u201cFact: The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strikes in Iraq The United States and Saudi Arabia carried out joint air strikes on Wednesday against Iran-backed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,801,322367,31776,3,322366,322365,21,336695,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-792277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-iran","tag-media-analysis","tag-media-bias","tag-news","tag-news-compared","tag-news-comparison","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-and-saudi-arabia","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}