Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has set up new covert cells in Iraq to attack Gulf states hosting U.S. forces, bypassing well-known pro-Iranian militias to reduce exposure, Reuters reported, citing eight Iraqi sources. Three of those sources said the network includes three or four cells, each with about 10 elite Shiite Iraqi fighters, and that they carried out at least seven drone attacks from a desert area near Basra and Samawah in southern Iraq.
The alleged targets were in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates between April 20 and May 17. The sources said some members were recruited from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad umbrella of pro-Iranian factions, but the new groups operate outside that chain of command and report directly to the Revolutionary Guard. Among the sources were two Iraqi army officers, another security official and five local militia commanders.
Militia leaders said the move reflects a tactical shift by Iran, aimed at preserving its regional reach as its proxies weaken and its military and economic resources shrink. Iraq, which has a Shiite majority, hosts many militias closely tied to Tehran and central to Iran’s “axis of resistance” stretching from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq. Since the war began, factions under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella claimed dozens of drone and rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq, followed by deadly American airstrikes.
A retired Iraqi general and two lawmakers from the Shiite Alliance said some powerful Shiite factions have signaled since last year that they are willing to disarm and focus on domestic politics to avoid escalation with the Trump administration. Two militias, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Brigades, said this month they would begin handing weapons to state authorities after repeated U.S. warnings to Baghdad to dismantle armed groups on its territory. The general said the new cells appear smaller, more ideologically extreme, and more tightly controlled, reflecting Iran’s need to conserve resources under economic pressure.
The Iraqi sources said security forces know little about the cells but are trying to identify their command lines to prevent future attacks. They added that the cells include elite fighters skilled in drones and communications. The new network is also a challenge for Prime Minister Ali al-Zidi, who took office last month amid U.S. pressure and after efforts to block the return of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is close to Iran. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE summoned Iraq’s ambassadors in April over the attacks, and al-Zidi called two strikes launched from Iraqi territory “criminal,” promising a joint investigation with Gulf states.
