{"id":20755,"date":"2026-07-29T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20755"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:30:15","slug":"u-s-saudi-arabia-attack-iranian-backed-groups-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20755","title":{"rendered":"U.S., Saudi Arabia attack Iranian-backed groups in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/4931785288690\/2026\/upi_com\/710933f3da5a0496cd31c760b3a22713\/v1.5\/US-Saudi-Arabia-attack-Iranian-backed-groups-in-Iraq.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The militaries of the United States and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran proxies in Iraq on Wednesday. File Photo by U.S. Central Command\/Department of Defense<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 28 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> The United States and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed proxies in Iraq on Wednesday after Saudi air defense systems intercepted days of attacks launched from Iraq against the kingdom&#8217;s petroleum facilities.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Central Command said in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2082260118930956482?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a> that it struck logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq, describing the joint attack as a &#8220;strong response&#8221; to the more than 30 drone strikes directed at Saudi Arabia&#8217;s energy infrastructure over the last 72 hours.\n<\/p>\n<p>The joint attack was the first U.S. military operation during a five-day pause in direct strikes on Iran intended to allow diplomacy to resume. The pause followed 13 consecutive nights of CENTCOM strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Defense Ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/modgovksa\/status\/2082261560924233927?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed<\/a> the joint strikes, describing them as &#8220;precise and targeted strikes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Iran-aligned, Iraq-based Popular Mobilization Forces said its Basra Operations Command came under attack at 2 a.m. local time, wounding two of its members, the Iraqi New Agency <a href=\"https:\/\/ina.iq\/ar\/security\/269457-.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>. It did not identify those responsible.<\/p>\n<p>It said inspections of the site and damage assessments were ongoing. <\/p>\n<p>It was unclear if any of the Iraq-launched drones hit their intended targets, though Saudi Arabia said several drones targeting its petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and Riyadh region had been intercepted and destroyed.\n<\/p>\n<p>According to CENTCOM, more than 600 &#8220;attempted attacks&#8221; targeting U.S. assets in the region were launched by Iranian proxies in Iraq between the start of the war in late February and the announcement of the now-collapsed cease-fire in April.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>The United States and Iran have been at war since late February, though fighting halted under a fragile cease-fire reached in April. The cease-fire collapsed earlier this month, leading to nearly a fortnight of nightly U.S. attacks against Iran.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The militaries of the United States and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran proxies in Iraq on Wednesday. File Photo by U.S. Central Command\/Department of Defense July 28 (UPI) &#8212; The United States and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed proxies in Iraq on Wednesday after Saudi air defense systems intercepted days of attacks launched from Iraq against the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/4931785288690\/2026\/1\/710933f3da5a0496cd31c760b3a22713\/v1.5\/US-Saudi-Arabia-attack-Iranian-backed-groups-in-Iraq.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}