The Militia Digest
The funerals the morning edition previewed took place, and the same casualty file now runs across five networks. Between 20:07 and 20:31, Sabereen News, Unit 10,000 (both KH — affiliated) and Shabab al-Islam (Ashab al-Kahf — owned) posted an identical Najaf funeral caption blaming "Saudi-American aggression", with no date, place, toll or names. Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated) and Sabereen ran word-for-word Karbala wording twelve seconds apart, Sabereen crediting the Popular Mobilization Commission, while Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) named a Basra dead man, Haydar al-Sikini. Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) added Nineveh and Najaf processions chanting for a response.
No Iraqi faction claimed any retaliatory operation.
One item filled the gap the funeral captions left: Sadiqoun deputy chairman Ahmad al-Mousawi, on Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) at 19:58, said Saudi targeting of official security headquarters is "a declaration of war against Iraq" — the only description of what was struck — and that Iraqis "can enter Saudi Arabia in two days but are waiting for the government's position". Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official) instead headlined an unnamed Arbaeen pilgrim telling Saudi Arabia "we are martyrdom projects and we have a coming response" — a quoted individual, not a faction pledge.
Baghdad, meanwhile, said no evidence supports the Saudi claim that drones were launched from Iraqi soil, while Reuters reported that Houthi forces are attacking Saudi Arabia from Iraq, citing sources. 21 of 34 watched channels across 9 networks have surged on the Saudi defence ministry since 29 July, by the desk's count.
The morning's government-versus-militia causal dispute hardened into a domestic blame fight. Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) devoted three separate segments to Sunni politician Khamis al-Khanjar: al-Yasiri saying he "lined up" with the Saudi aggression, Ali al-Fatlawi of the Reconstruction and Development Coalition saying he calls the PMF "militias" and widening the grievance to Kuwait over oil wells, and Wa'ad al-Qaddu of the parliamentary security and defence committee saying "the same party that bombed the Hashd may attack al-Khanjar in the future".
Al-Qaddu also asked the speaker to convene an emergency session and said no summons would go to the Saudi ambassador "for fear of hurting his feelings". No al-Khanjar reply and no other network carried the accusation.
On the state track, iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) and Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) both carried government spokesman al-Aboudi denying Baghdad approved any attacks on Iraqi soil within about a minute, but the KH post alone added the denial of prior knowledge and the suspension of the prime minister's Saudi visit. Ansar Allah al-Awfiya's official channel carried MP Murtada al-Sa'adi acknowledging "a divergence of positions inside the Coordination Framework" over escalation and leaders' personal statements harsher than the bloc's, and separately making any weapons handover conditional on "real security and political guarantees".
The same channel issued five distinct denials that Ahmad al-Asadi was removed from the Framework or replaced by Shibl al-Zaidi; no other tracked channel addressed his status.