Iran launches missiles at US base; US-Saudi airstrikes hit Iraqi militias
Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American forces in West Asia early Wednesday (July 29, 2026), as the United States and Saudi Arabia conducted airstrikes against Tehran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters, according to Iraqi militia officials.
Six Iranian advisers were killed in the U.S.-Saudi strike, two Iraqi militia officials told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. It was not immediately clear whether the advisers were included in the twenty fighters reported killed.
The flare-up on multiple fronts, after several days of relative calm, raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and is unpopular among Americans, and added to concerns that the U.S. is drawing down already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.
Saudi Arabia had accused Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past two days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group — the Houthi rebels in Yemen — said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.
Before the latest eruption, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. An interim agreement collapsed in recent weeks over renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies that Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.
A regional official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy, said mediators were “still trying with both sides” to restore calm and get the ceasefire back on track. He gave no details on whether progress was being made.
The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.1% to $84.58 a barrel.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key U.S. military hub for the region, in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. Jordan's military said five Iranian missiles had been intercepted and destroyed, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The U.S. military later announced that American and Saudi fighter aircraft had struck multiple logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to the alleged drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Defence Ministry warned that it “does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression.” The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed armed groups that is officially under the command of the Iraqi military, said at least 20 fighters were killed and 32 others wounded in the overnight strikes.
The groups making up the PMF joined the fight against the Islamic State group after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014. The Iraqi government later designated it as an “independent military formation” within the armed forces, but in practice the militias have significant autonomy, and some have attacked U.S. facilities.
The office of Iraqi President Nizar Amidi condemned Wednesday's U.S.-Saudi airstrikes, calling them “an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty, targeting its official security institutions.” Iraq's National Security Council condemned the strikes, saying in a statement that they had been carried out “while the Iraqi government was in contact with relevant parties to investigate and address all the concerns raised by the Saudi and American sides regarding the targeting of Saudi territory.” It said “a number of innocent people” had been killed and wounded.
