Iraq has placed security and military forces on high alert after a one-week deadline by Iran-backed militias to respond to recent US and Saudi strikes expired.
The Iraqi army held a meeting with military and counter-terrorism officials, including representatives from the Popular Mobilisation Forces, on Thursday evening to discuss boosting security. Those who attended "emphasised not allowing Iraq to be a launchpad for any internal or external threat to any country", Iraq's Security Media Cell said in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, raised the security level in the country, placing all military forces on heightened alert. The measures coincide with a one-week deadline imposed by militia groups to respond to joint US and Saudi attacks last week that hit their positions. Riyadh and Washington said the strikes were carried out in response to attacks on the kingdom launched from Iraqi territory.
Hadi Al Ameri, leader of one of the strongest and well-organised Iran-aligned groups, the Badr Organisation, issued a video statement urging fighters to delay their response. "I direct my call to my sons and brothers in the Islamic resistance in Iraq ... to postpone any reaction to the American-Saudi aggression and to bite the wound for the greater good of Iraq," he said.
The so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which comprises militia groups, had set a deadline demanding the Iraqi government take action against Saudi Arabia. Militias warned that they would respond if Baghdad failed to do so.
A senior Saudi official told Reuters that intelligence from the US, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries found that Yemen's Houthi rebels and Iraqi militia groups, in co-ordination with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, could soon launch attacks on key civilian sites. Saudi Arabia said 11 civilians were injured in a Houthi attack on the south of the kingdom on Thursday.
There was suspicion that the attacks launched from Iraq were carried out in co-ordination with the Houthis.
Iraq said "innocent Iraqis" were killed in the US and Saudi strikes. But it promised to investigate the drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh called on Baghdad to "take all necessary measures to prevent its territory from being used as a launchpad for aggression".
The heightened security measures also come before a disarmament deadline. The State Administration Coalition, a group of top Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political parties who form the government, on Thursday issued their strongest warning yet to militias, stating that failure to comply with the September 30 deadline for disarmament would result in terrorism charges.
Iraqi state media published the text of the counter-terrorism law, stressing that "authorities will rigorously enforce the law against anyone who violates the instructions issued in this regard after the specified deadline".
The Iraqi government has set a September 30 deadline for disarmament, the same date given to US troops to leave the country in a 2024 agreement between Baghdad and Washington. The presence of US troops in the country is the main pretext for militias to keep their weapons. Only three groups have announced their integration into the security forces, while others continue to resist.
