Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Struck Iran-Linked Militia Targets in Iraq During the Gulf War

Saudi Arabia conducted undisclosed airstrikes against Iran-linked militia targets inside Iraq during the broader 2026 regional war, and rockets were launched from Kuwaiti territory into southern Iraq on at least two separate occasions, according to a Reuters report published May 14. The sourcing for both sets of strikes includes three Iraqi security and military officials, a Western official, and two additional people briefed on the matter, one based in the United States. Neither Riyadh nor Kuwait City has publicly acknowledged the operations. The disclosures arrive amid a wider, still-incomplete public accounting of Gulf-state military activity during a conflict that began Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran.

The broader arc of that conflict provides essential context. The U.S.-Israeli campaign triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes against Gulf states and Israel, rattled global markets, and closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Since those initial strikes, Iran hit all six Gulf Cooperation Council states with missiles and drones, targeting not only U.S. military bases but civilian sites, airports, and oil infrastructure. Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq served as a secondary launch platform: hundreds of the drones that struck Gulf targets during the conflict originated from Iraqi territory. In March, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had warned Baghdad through diplomatic channels to restrain rocket and drone attacks by pro-Iranian groups, according to two Iraqi security officials and a government security adviser. Those diplomatic warnings produced limited results. Iraqi forces say they intercepted some attempted attacks, including the seizure of a rocket launcher west of Basra that had been positioned to strike Saudi energy facilities, but militia operations continued.

The Saudi airstrikes inside Iraq were carried out by Royal Saudi Air Force fighter jets and targeted Iran-linked militia positions near the kingdom's northern border with Iraq. Those sites served as launch pads for drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. A Western official told Reuters that some of the strikes took place around the time of the April 7 U.S.-Iran ceasefire. The Iraq-focused operations were distinct from, but temporally linked to, a separate and previously reported Saudi military campaign: Saudi Arabia launched multiple unpublicized strikes on Iranian territory itself, marking the first known instance of the kingdom conducting direct military action on Iranian soil, with Western officials assessing those attacks were carried out in late March. The Wall Street Journal reported that the United Arab Emirates also conducted military strikes on Iran during the conflict.

The Kuwait-origin strikes present a significant attribution question that remains unresolved. Iraqi military sources, citing their own assessments, said rocket attacks were launched from Kuwaiti territory on at least two occasions, with one set of strikes in April hitting militia positions in southern Iraq, killing several fighters and destroying a Kataib Hezbollah facility used for communications and drone operations. Kataib Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and one of the most operationally active Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq. Reuters could not determine whether the rockets were fired by Kuwaiti armed forces or by the U.S. military, which maintains a large presence in Kuwait. The U.S. military declined to comment, and the Kuwaiti information ministry and the Iraqi government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. military presence in Kuwait includes Ali Al Salem Air Base and Camp Arifjan, both of which were themselves struck by Iranian drones during the conflict. Kuwait summoned Iraq's representative three times over cross-border attacks during the war.

The Saudi government's public posture remained one of formal de-escalation throughout. A Saudi foreign ministry official stated that the kingdom sought de-escalation, self-restraint, and a reduction of tensions in pursuit of regional stability, but did not address the question of strikes on Iraq. Western and Iranian officials said Saudi Arabia informed Tehran of its strikes in advance, which was followed by intense diplomacy and warnings of further retaliation, ultimately producing an informal understanding between the two countries to reduce hostilities. That bilateral de-escalation began to take hold before the April 7 ceasefire: Reuters tallied Saudi defense ministry statements showing that drone and missile attacks on the kingdom fell from more than 105 in the week of March 25-31 to just over 25 between April 1-6. The 2023 China-brokered normalization agreement that restored Saudi-Iranian diplomatic relations provided the existing bilateral channel through which those contacts were conducted, though the war severely stressed that arrangement. The conflict tested the fragile détente established between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023 under a China-brokered agreement that restored diplomatic relations after years of hostility and proxy conflicts across the Middle East.

The newly reported Iraq-theater strikes fit a pattern of independent Gulf-state military action that analysts and officials say reflects a structural shift in regional security calculus. Saudi Arabia, which has a deep military relationship with the United States, has traditionally relied on U.S. military protection, but the 10-week war left the kingdom vulnerable to attacks that pierced the U.S. military umbrella. Saudi Arabia pursued a more cautious strategy than the UAE overall, maintaining diplomatic communication with Tehran while seeking to avoid broader regional escalation, but the disclosed strikes confirm that Riyadh was simultaneously willing to use force inside a third country's territory to suppress the militia threat. Iran-backed militias continue to fly surveillance drones along Iraq's borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, conducting reconnaissance and feeding intelligence to Iran, according to four Iraqi security sources and an additional person briefed on the matter, a posture that suggests the operational threat has not been eliminated despite the ceasefire.

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