“Saudi Arabia said Monday it had intercepted a "number of drones" that Iran-backed militias in Iraq had launched at the kingdom's oil facilities.
Riyadh demanded in a statement that Iraq take "all necessary measures to ensure the prevention of the use of its territory as a launching point" for attacks.
Iraqi militias haven't claimed responsibility for the attacks, and another pro-Iran militant group, Yemen's Houthis, said it had attacked Saudi oil facilities, making it unclear Monday who was responsible for the drone strikes.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered security authorities to investigate and said his country wouldn't allow its territory to be used as a corridor or launchpad for any attack against friendly countries.
Pro-Tehran Iraqi militias have conducted repeated drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states since the U.S. and Israel jointly launched a war against Iran in February, drawing in some of the world's largest oil producers. The militias operate independently of the Iraqi government and are often at odds with the central authorities.
A Saudi assessment concluded that up to half of the nearly 1,000 drone attacks on the Saudi kingdom have come from inside Iraq, according to a person familiar with the report.
They included strikes on a Saudi refinery in the Yanbu oil hub on the Red Sea and on oil fields in the kingdom's eastern province where Monday's attacks took place, people familiar with the matter said.
Saudi Arabia has retaliated by carrying out strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, people familiar with the matter said.
One Persian Gulf official said the attack on Monday caused minor damage to the kingdom's Abqaiq oil-processing and stabilization facility, the world's largest, handling roughly 7 million barrels a day. Images from the European Union's Sentinel-2 Earth observation satellite showed flaring at the plant, but the official statement from the Saudis didn't identify Abqaiq as a target of the attack.
The Houthis said they had targeted Saudi oil facilities in response to incursions into Yemeni airspace by the kingdom's drones.
The Houthis are raising the threat to a crucial oil-export route that Saudi Arabia has been using to work around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Tehran has effectively closed off the strait to shipping traffic since the Iran war began.
A pipeline routing oil west across Saudi Arabia to a port on the Red Sea has allowed Riyadh to keep up export volumes during the war. From there, tankers sail through the chokepoint at Bab al-Mandeb and out to the Indian Ocean and oil-hungry Asian markets.
Last week the Houthis said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, and they carried out several attacks against Saudi vessels in recent days.
The blockade and the attacks forced more Saudi barrels onto a longer, costlier and technically challenging journey that goes through Egypt's Suez Canal and around Africa.
Like the Iraqi militias, the Houthis have conducted strikes on Saudi oil targets during the Iran war.” [1]
1. World News: Saudis Blame Pro-Tehran Militias in Iraq for Oil Attacks. Said, Summer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 28 July 2026: A6.
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