War expands as U.S.-Saudi strikes target Iraqi militias backed by Iran

Iraq’s president has condemned a joint U.S.-Saudi attack on Iran-backed paramilitary forces in the country, which the militias said had killed at least 20 people and drew yet another country into the five-month Middle East war launched by Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28.

In a statement, the Iraqi presidency said Wednesday that the strikes, which were the first offensive operations Saudi Arabia has acknowledged taking part in during the current conflict, were “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.” 

The statement condemned “targeting of its official security institutions in a manner that contravenes the rules of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”

The Iraqi president also condemned the Iranian proxy forces targeted by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for launching attacks “against neighboring countries or for the settling of regional and international scores.”

In a statement announcing the attacks against the groups in Iraq, U.S. Central Command accused the militias of attacking U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure under the direction of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iranian state television said Wednesday that a U.S. strike hit a city in the country’s northwest, on the border with Iraq.

“A few minutes ago, an area in the Piranshahr border area was attacked by American enemy airstrikes,” state television reported, after Fars news agency quoted an official in West Azerbaijan province as saying a missile hit an uninhabited area, leaving no casualties.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said late Tuesday that U.S. and Saudi forces conducted joint strikes on Iranian proxies in Iraq. 

U.S. troops across the Middle East have been warned that cellphone videos they share online could help Iran target American bases, the Reuters news agency reported Wednesday.

Admiral Brad Cooper, overall commander of U.S. Central Command, said in the letter to the forces that Iran was benefiting from videos posted online that could reveal whether strikes targeting American forces were successful in near real-time.

“The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,” Cooper said in the July 28 letter, which a CENTCOM official confirmed to CBS News had been sent.

Cooper called on U.S. forces to “redouble our focus on operational security,” without prescribing specific steps in the memo.   

Reuters said, citing two anonymous sources, that in Jordan, where three U.S.  service members were recently killed in an Iranian strike on an air base, troops had been told their cellphones could soon be confiscated, but the CENTCOM official who spoke to CBS News on Wednesday disputed any such plans.

Oil prices climbed again Wednesday as a brief pause in fighting in the Iran war was shattered. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, had eased from the two-month high it hit last week, but it rebounded 3.3% Wednesday to sell at about $85 a barrel.

The calm persisted for about three days following weeks of escalation over control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway and narrow chokepoint through which 20% of the world’s traded oil normally flows.

Benchmark U.S. crude increased 3.4% to $81.93 a barrel Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the joint strikes carried out alongside U.S. forces against Iran-backed groups in Iraq were lawful self-defense.

“These Iran-backed terrorist militias chose the path of irresponsible escalation, violating international law,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the strikes were carried out in response to previous attacks by the militia groups on Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. and Saudi militaries launched airstrikes late Tuesday on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said, after Iran and its proxies allegedly targeted American forces over the last few days.

The U.S.-Saudi operation was aimed at “terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq,” CENTCOM said in a statement posted to social media. The Saudi Ministry of Defense also confirmed that it “conducted precise and targeted strikes,” citing its right to self-defense.

The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of Iraqi paramilitary forces backed by Iran, said in a statement released Wednesday that  at least 20 of its fighters were killed and 32 wounded. The group said its headquarters in Baghdad and six other locations were struck.

CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to more than 30 attempted drone attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi energy sites over the last three days, describing the attacks on U.S. assets as unsuccessful. Saudi Arabia said it has intercepted drones that were launched from Iraq and targeted petroleum facilities in Riyadh and the country’s east.

Jordan’s military said the country’s air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday. In a statement, the military said the missiles had been “intercepted and destroyed.” It did not mention any casualties.

Earlier, the U.S. military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia’s forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days, shattering a brief pause in fighting.

All Iranian missiles launched against American forces in the Middle East were intercepted, U.S. Central Command said.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards struck and halted three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the Revolutionary Guards. 

“Three violating oil tankers, which ignored our warnings and continued sailing an unsafe and illegal route, were struck and brought to a halt,” the Tasnim News agency reported.

It was not immediately clear if the tankers sustained any significant damage, or if there were any injuries to crewmembers from the attacks.

Earlier Tuesday, the Yemen-based Houthi militant group, which is an Iranian proxy, said it fired several ballistic missiles at a Saudi-flagged tanker in the Red Sea. 

Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East in what U.S. Central Command described as an “attempted surprise attack.”

CENTCOM said the missiles were launched at 5:45 p.m. ET Tuesday by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They were all “successfully intercepted,” according to CENTCOM. 

“U.S. forces remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness,” CENTCOM said in its statement.

The White House meeting between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “extremely positive,” according to a senior Israeli source who accompanied Netanyahu in the meeting.

“It was an extremely positive meeting,” the source said. “The Prime Minister and President held an excellent and comprehensive discussion on the key issues of the day, first and foremost Iran. The leaders reaffirmed their ironclad commitment to ensuring that Iran never has nuclear weapons.” 

The meeting held the potential to be tense, emphasized by Mr. Trump’s comments to Fox News just before the meeting. He pushed back on a reporter’s question about Netanyahu wanting to discuss Pickaxe Mountain, a supposed Iranian nuclear facility, saying, “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that.”

“Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “I said, ‘Why didn’t you just tell it to me, why did you have to announce it to the world?'”

“I know ‌exactly what’s ‌going on at ⁠Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem,” Mr. Trump added.

The meeting lasted for a little over an hour.