Baghdad Officials Suspect Israel Targeted New Chinese Air Defense Missiles
Five people were injured in a separate blast at a paramilitary base, and authorities are investigating strikes on militia storage sites that occurred last week.
By John Ferrari ·
Iraqi security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that Israel likely conducted strikes on two locations where Iranian-backed militias stored shoulder-fired air defense systems from China. The weapons, reportedly supplied by Tehran, arrived at the sites shortly before the attacks took place last week. One source noted that the armed group involved considered the storage spots difficult to detect or reach.
The timeline of recent incidents in Baghdad suggests a pattern of targeting. On October 1, warehouses linked to Iran-backed groups in and around the capital were affected. These sites reportedly held drones intended for suicide attacks and reconnaissance missions. A security official stated that while the exact nature of the strikes remains undetermined, evidence points to Israeli involvement. The mid-October events followed these earlier hits, with the most recent strikes occurring last week on the Chinese-origin systems.
A separate explosion occurred on October 17 at a Popular Mobilition Forces base in Baghdad's East Canal area. The PMF, an umbrella body for many Iranian-backed militias and a government paramilitary force, described the blast as an accident. The newspaper reported that the explosion hit a stockpile of obsolete ammunition and injured five people. The Iraqi government promised an investigation, but an anonymous official said more than a week had passed with no update on the circumstances.
Iraq has previously attributed strikes to Israel, including incidents in 2019 and a hit in Albukamal, Syria. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel established a secret airstrip in Iraq during its campaign against Iran. Unconfirmed accounts also describe Israeli fighter jets flying through Iraqi airspace near the Iranian border with the aid of midair refuelers. These developments come as Iran has armed Iraqi militias for years, providing missiles and drones capable of threatening Israel.
Since the United States and Israel began airstrikes in February, Iran has sought to turn Iraq into a frontline. The country has carried out more than 1,000 strikes on the Kurdistan Region using drones and missiles. Iran and allied militias have mounted 600 attacks across Iraq, some targeting US diplomatic sites. The US withdrew its forces from Iraq on September 30, a deadline agreed with Baghdad, and has since warned Americans against traveling to the capital.
Asharq Al-Awsat linked earlier reports of China supplying weapons to Iran with the movement of the same systems to Iraq, though it described that connection as unconfirmed. China's Foreign Ministry denied those reports on July 28. An Iran-backed militia also attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline with a drone, reportedly from Iraq's Maysan province. That crossing has since been closed amid US pressure and Iraqi concerns about trafficking.
A source in the Shi'ite Coordination Framework said ruling party leaders had spent weeks predicting that renewed war between Washington and Tehran would begin with the total destruction of Iraqi factions' capabilities. Most major PMF groups, apart from the Badr Organization, are sanctioned by the US as terrorist organizations. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a collection of militias that has attacked Israel and the US, published a statement claiming Iraqi airspace was being violated.
