Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday that its armed forces, in coordination with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), carried out precision strikes against Iran-backed militia targets inside Iraq in response to two drone attacks that targeted the Kingdom's oil infrastructure earlier this week.

According to Saudi Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki, the operation followed the interception and destruction of drones launched from Iraqi territory during two separate attacks on July 27 and July 28 against oil facilities in the Eastern Province and the Riyadh region. Riyadh stated that the drones were launched by Iran-backed terrorist militias operating from Iraq and reaffirmed its right to respond under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

The Saudi operation marks the Kingdom's first publicly acknowledged military response against militia targets inside Iraq since attributing the attacks to Iran-backed groups.

Sheba Intelligence Exclusive

Hours before Saudi Arabia's first official announcement identifying Iraq as the launch point for the attacks, Sheba Intelligence exclusively reported that an airstrike on Yemen's Kamaran Island had reportedly killed foreign military experts, including Iranian and Iraqi nationals.

According to Sheba Intelligence's sources, the foreign experts were involved in Houthi military infrastructure supporting drone, missile, and maritime operations in the Red Sea. Their identities were disclosed by Sheba Intelligence prior to Riyadh's initial public attribution of the attacks to Iraqi territory.

The subsequent sequence of events—beginning with the reported deaths of Iranian and Iraqi experts on Kamaran Island, followed by two acknowledged drone attacks launched from Iraq, and culminating in coordinated Saudi-U.S. strikes against Iran-backed militias—highlights the increasingly interconnected operational network linking Iran-aligned armed groups across Yemen and Iraq.