Friday, 31 July 2026

Zaidi ordered a heightened alert across Iraqi military and Popular Mobilization Forces bases today, and Baghdad named modernizing the country's air defenses a top priority, after joint US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization sites this week that the Iraqi government says it neither authorized nor knew of beforehand. The order covers PMF bases alongside army units, Baghdad presented the maximum alert as a vow not to be drawn into regional conflict, and Rudaw reported the air-defense pledge as Iraq's answer to the strikes rather than a reply in kind.

A Saudi source said Riyadh's response struck Iraqi militia capabilities that threatened Saudi security, and Basnews reported the Houthis had launched attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi militias; the Iraqi government's position is that no evidence supports the Saudi claim that drones flew from Iraq. A source told Kurdistan24 that Prime Minister Sudani has threatened to resign amid the rift over the Saudi visit.

Four bodies — Hasan Sami, Ahmad Jashni Aziz, Muhammad Mardan Hasoud and Ali Hamid Zaynal — were flown by aircraft from Baghdad to Nineveh this evening, reported by Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) after Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) posted a funeral for "the martyrs of the American-Saudi aggression"; no militia claim of a retaliatory action accompanies the deaths.

Harakat Hoquq member Ahmad al-Jabri said the Iraqi parliament must pass the Popular Mobilization Forces law "in response to the recent attacks", whose victims he put at more than 20 martyrs, naming no perpetrator, location or date; Harakat Hoquq is the political movement associated with Kataib Hezbollah, and the line was relayed this evening by Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) rather than issued by the Badr Organization. The PMF chief separately rejected calls to hand weapons over to the Iraqi state, and a former prime minister said force will not solve Iraq's weapons issue — the casualties invoked as grounds to legislate the force's status rather than to constrain it.

Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) published a graphic quoting an Iraqi MP — the caption and the on-image signature give different names, the image reading "MP Dr. Muqdad al-Khafaji" — warning that "a suffocating financial crisis looms and may paralyse the joints of the state," and that the cost must fall on corruption files, double salaries and unjustified privileges for senior officials rather than on the employee and the citizen. iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) reported that parliament will host the oil minister over contracts and "billions spent without results" in coming sessions, a framing carried in the channel's own headline and by no tracked peer, with the session not independently documented.

The desk's Brent settlement reads 91.82 USD/bbl, down 8.5% against the previous observation, and the Erbil parallel rate reads 150,450 IQD per 100 USD, down 0.2%. Rudaw asked how long Central Bank reserves and the money-printing scheme can carry the gap.

The governor of Baghdad asked the prime minister for "urgent and positive intervention" to stop Baghdad Municipality procedures removing more than 5,000 homes inhabited by more than 25,000 citizens under the New Sadr City project, in a scanned governorate letter posted this evening by Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) and referring to security directorates and military forces carrying out inspection and eviction, causing "chaos and anxiety".

Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) aired Nasrawi saying Karbala's fuel allocation has seen no increase this year and that the government has not answered the provincial council; no minister or ministry was named, and the desk observed no other tracked channel carrying either item. Iraqi authorities separately reported detaining 30 terrorism suspects and 325 others during July, and Kurdistan's Erbil-Baghdad file moved with Barzani and Halbousi discussing greater coordination.

Four bodies were flown by aircraft from Baghdad to Nineveh this evening, and two faction networks named the same perpetrator. Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) posted a funeral report at 18:25 for "the martyrs of the American-Saudi aggression" with crowds demanding sovereignty be preserved; some 48 minutes later Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) reported a special aircraft carrying four named bodies — Hasan Sami, Ahmad Jashni Aziz, Muhammad Mardan Hasoud and Ali Hamid Zaynal. Neither named a unit, a strike location or a time, and no militia claim of a retaliatory action accompanies the deaths.

Outside the militia channels, a Saudi source told Asharq al-Awsat that the response targeted Iraqi militia capabilities that threatened its security, and Lebanese Hezbollah condemned the US strike while criticising Riyadh.

The evening's argument was over what the dead license. The official channel of Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina published a line attributed to Saadi at 19:17: if the government is incapable of responding to the Saudi aggression, "the people are capable" — no target, unit or timetable named. iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) at 19:40 called the weapons of the resistance a guarantee of deterrence and sovereignty, while Al-Nujaba TV named those same weapons as an external condition being imposed on the government through fiscal leverage.

Running the argument the other way, Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) relayed Harakat Hoquq member Ahmad al-Jabri demanding parliament pass the Popular Mobilization law "in response to the recent attacks", which he said killed more than 20.

The state's answer was a readiness order, and the relays diverged on its edges. Al-Ghadeer TV and Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) both carried armed forces spokesman Sabah al-Numan on the commander-in-chief directing raised alert at all camps and bases and accelerated air-defence and early-warning procurement; Watan TV added two clauses the AAH relay omitted — that internal security is the exclusive responsibility of state institutions, and that "some external parties" are trying to drag Iraqi territory and airspace into the conflict. Al-Ahad TV named al-Zaidi; Al-Ghadeer TV used the office title.

Reporting outside the militia channels put the alert nationwide and Iraq's air-defence modernisation as "top priority", with Baghdad vowing it will not be drawn into a regional conflict. Al-Ahad TV separately relayed al-Nu'man saying al-Zaidi ordered preventive intelligence plans against any attacks or infiltration, naming no adversary.

At 14:51:33 Sabereen News (KH — affiliated) posted that Bubiyan Island had been "pounded with drones"; fourteen seconds later Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) said drones were targeting it, Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated) called it an attack in Kuwait, and Shabab al-Islam (Ashab al-Kahf — owned/non-official) said explosions shook Kuwait — four channels across three factions inside five minutes, none naming a perpetrator and no claim of responsibility under any brand in the collected material.

Away from the strikes, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya's official channel documented two field rounds in the 19th Brigade's Karbala sector, placing the PMF General Military Intelligence Directorate deputy and Anbar's intelligence official inside one brigade's ground, ordering readiness raised for Arbaeen pilgrims.

The fiscal file split the same way the weapons file did. Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) published an MP's prescription that a "suffocating financial crisis" must be paid for by corruption files and official privileges — recovered public money, an end to double salaries and senior-official perks — not by employees and citizens, placing cause and cure inside Iraqi governance where Al-Nujaba TV placed them outside it; the post's caption and on-image signature give different names for the MP. Within one minute at 19:38 the same channel aired Nasrawi saying Karbala's fuel allocation has seen no increase this year and that the government has not answered the provincial council.

Al-Nujaba TV carried the Baghdad governor's letter asking the prime minister to halt removal of more than 5,000 homes housing over 25,000 residents under the New Sadr City project, and iNEWS reported parliament will host the oil minister over "billions spent without results" — the framing in its own headline. Press reports put Iraq's 35,000-megawatt target by 2030 against a persisting power deficit.