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Iraq has refuted claims that it had advance knowledge of or authorised recent joint US-Saudi strikes on its soil that resulted in the deaths of at least 20 members of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF).
According to Al Jazeera, citing Iraq's state news agency, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has deferred a scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the military action. Addressing the developments, government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi stated that Baghdad "has not granted any approval for attacks on specific sites or groups within Iraqi territory" and emphasised that "the government had no prior knowledge of the attacks on Iraqi territory". The official Iraqi response follows assertions by US President Donald Trump that the operations were carried out in coordination with the Iraqi leadership. Baghdad, which issued a formal condemnation of the strikes on Wednesday, has explicitly disputed the US President's statements. Concurrently, Iraq has requested substantiating evidence from Saudi Arabia regarding claims that Iraqi-based, Iran-aligned armed factions initiated drone strikes targeting the kingdom. The Saudi defence ministry reported that drones originating from inside Iraq targeted key infrastructure, as well as the capital, Riyadh, on Monday and Tuesday. However, Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the Iraqi Prime Minister, stated that no documentation supporting those allegations has been made available. "No party has provided any evidence to substantiate these claims so far," al-Numan told the Iraqi News Agency, as quoted by CNN. Highlighting Baghdad's position on regional security and national integrity, al-Numan reaffirmed that Iraq would prevent non-state actors from launching strikes from its soil while resisting foreign military incursions. "The government will not tolerate any unilateral actions originating from within Iraq, while at the same time it will not accept any violation coming from outside its borders," al-Numan said. (ANI)
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