On the evening of 30 July, iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) ran a breaking graphic quoting spokesman al-Aboudi: "the government has not granted any approval to carry out attacks on specific sites or specific groups inside Iraqi territory". Roughly a minute earlier, Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) posted the same spokesman's remarks with two further lines the KSS item omitted: "the government has no prior knowledge of the carrying out of attacks on Iraqi territory" and "suspension of the prime minister's visit to Saudi Arabia after the recent attacks". Both posts preceded the funeral coverage by roughly a quarter of an hour.
The denial that Baghdad approved or knew of the strikes is the premise on which the factions build the argument that the state cannot protect the country and therefore cannot ask for their weapons.