Following Saturday’s drone attack on Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s government has issued a statement denying that there was any link to Iraqi soil and the attack, saying its territory had not been used in any way in the attack.



Moreover, the statement vowed to “punish anyone who intended to use Iraq as a launchpad for attacks in the region.” Some media reports trying to blame Iran for the attack suggested Iranian backed militias in Iraq may have been involved.



There is no evidence of any such thing happening, and indeed Iran denied any involvement in the attack as well. Yemen’s Houthi movement has claimed credit for the attack, though many anti-Iran hawks are looking to pin it on them, and that’s likely to mean trying to implicate Iraq as well.



Efforts to make Iraq an Iranian proxy have been ongoing for months, as US tensions have risen. Israel has also carried out multiple attacks on Iraqi soil in recent months on this pretext.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz