The Daily Digest
Yemen's Houthis have been launching attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iraqi territory, Reuters reported on Thursday citing sources — the first outside account of who fired what Riyadh answered with Wednesday's joint US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces sites, which Shafaq has assembled into a what-is-known account of the attack. Baghdad's account runs the other way: the government says it did not authorise or know of the strikes beforehand, denies coordination and says no evidence supports the Saudi claim that the drones flew from Iraq.
Iran received the bodies of five IRGC members killed in the raids, and the deputy speaker of parliament said the government does not control war decisions.
Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) published Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri this morning inspecting a struck position of the Fourth Regiment, 30th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the Nineveh Plain, naming no perpetrator and giving no date for the strike itself; the desk records no claim of responsibility from any party in the supplied material and no outside coverage of that incident.
Popular Mobilization dead were buried in the same Nineveh Plain today, and the two factions filming the funeral named different perpetrators — Al-Ahad TV (Asaib Ahl al-Haq — official) captioned its video as burying the martyrs of "the brutal American-Saudi aggression" with no number of dead, while Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina's official channel relayed deputy Jawad Rahim al-Saadi likening the bombing of Hashd headquarters to Saudi car bombs of 2004-2006 without naming who struck.
Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official) then put in its own caption, over a hosted argument between Tabaruk al-Husayni and Salah al-Kabisi, the question of why neither the sovereignty statement nor al-Khanjar condemned the Saudi bombing, endorsing neither disputant.
The disarmament argument the strikes reopened moved on today: the PMF chief rejected calls to hand weapons to the Iraqi state, a former prime minister said force will not solve the weapons issue, and Muqtada al-Sadr renewed his criticism of the militias while Ammar al-Hakim called for shielding Iraq from regional conflicts. Asharq al-Awsat reported that Iraq avoided admitting Gulf attacks were launched from its territory 'to avoid premature confrontation'. Middle East Eye reported drone strikes on Erbil and Sulaymaniyah overnight, with no attribution in the supplied material.
The government confirmed a financial crisis and warned of salary delays, Baghdad needing more than $2.5 billion to complete salary and pension payments, with Rafidain Bank moving to speed disbursement. Al-Ahad TV (Asaib Ahl al-Haq — official) ran two parliamentary items within fifteen minutes this morning — Adnan Fihan imposing "exceptional parliamentary action" on financial and political performance, then MP Haidar Muhammad al-Mutairi on a Finance Ministry deficit of 3 trillion 300 billion dinars and ten months of unpaid degree-holder salaries — and no other tracked faction outlet in the collected window raised either figure.
The desk's Brent settlement reads 91.82 USD/bbl, down 8.5% against the previous observation, and Rudaw asked how long Central Bank reserves and the money-printing scheme can carry the gap.
Ankara and Baghdad both expect Iraqi crude to keep flowing through Turkey while an extension deal is discussed, and Turkey is seeking a comprehensive energy cooperation deal with Iraq as bp brings Türkiye's TPAO into the Kirkuk oil redevelopment project. In Kurdistan, a warehouse fire closed the Erbil-Kirkuk road — Rudaw reported ten locations alight in Shakara Shar in one day, the largest being the road blaze where several warehouses were still burning. The KRG approved an emergency fuel strategy and reaffirmed its budget rights in the 2027 federal spending plan, and President Barzani met Halbousi on Erbil-Baghdad relations.