Israeli military confirms drone attacks launched from Iraq target Israel

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed to Fox News Digital this week that several unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, have been launched into Israel from Iraqi territory since the beginning of the conflict with Iran to eliminate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons facilities, missile systems and terrorist infrastructure.

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an IDF spokesman, said the army had achieved an “almost complete success” rate in preventing Iranian drones from striking Israeli targets.

It is assumed that the drones launched from Iraq come from areas controlled by the Iranian regime Popular Mobilization Forcesor bmf. An umbrella organization for Shiite terrorists, it attacked Israel with drones in 2024 during Israel’s war against the Tehran-backed Hamas movement.

A mourner holds a photo of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (top left) on March 5, 2026, during a funeral procession for members of the pro-Iranian paramilitary Kataib Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq (Kataib Hezbollah) who were killed in a raid in Baghdad the day before. The Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah said on March 5 that one of its leaders had been killed in an airstrike in southern Iraq the day before. (Ahmed Al-Rubaie/AFP via Getty Images)

An Iraqi Kurdish official told Fox News Digital: “Iraq has become a vessel for the Iranians. Is it so difficult to see that? I don’t see a difference between the Popular Mobilization Forces and the state. They get their salaries from the state, they hold sovereign portfolios in this government, they travel abroad, and now they have entered the federal legislature.”

The official continued: “In the past two decades, Iran has systematically seized control of the state, weaponizing what were supposed to be institutions and turning them into tools to protect the Shiite regime in Baghdad and punish any threat to it, including the Kurdistan Regional Government. Through Baghdad and state institutions, it has strangled the Kurdistan region economically, shredded our autonomy and exposed us to further attacks.”

An attack on the country’s shrinking Christian community has been reported. Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, from the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, wrote on Thursday: “Miracle no one was hurt when two drones struck our community, 150 meters from a Christian education center serving 1,000 Catholic children. Our university and schools are also closed so that young people can stay with their parents. Please pray for us and for all who are suffering in this war.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government authorities confirmed the attack and said it was carried out with two drones.

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Philip Smith, an expert on Shiite militias in Iraq, told Fox News Digital about the strikes on the Chaldean Catholic school, “Kata’ib Hezbollah was the first to talk about it and it is likely Kata’ib Hezbollah, but it is likely to be two of the pro-Iranian militias because they are all working together launching drones.”

A drone attack struck an oil field operated by US company HKN Energy in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on Thursday, causing a fire and halting production, according to a Reuters report citing security sources and an oil field engineer.

No group claimed responsibility, but Kurdish officials accused Iraqi militias allied with Iran of carrying out the attack.

If so, the attack means that Iraqi militias allied with Iran, which have vowed to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, have expanded their targets from US military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to US energy interests.

A mourner holds a photo of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (top left) on March 5, 2026, during a funeral procession for members of the pro-Iranian paramilitary Kataib Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq (Kataib Hezbollah) who were killed in a raid in Baghdad the day before. The Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataib Hezbollah said on March 5 that one of its leaders had been killed in an airstrike in southern Iraq the day before. (Ahmed Al-Rubaie/AFP via Getty Images)

The engineer told Reuters that production in the field stopped as a precaution after an explosion in the power unit.

Some energy companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan have suspended oil and gas production in their fields as a precaution, after the United States and Israel launched strikes on neighboring Iran.

Intifad Qanbar, a former spokesman for the Iraqi deputy prime minister, echoed the Iraqi Kurdish official’s comments in his statement to Fox News Digital: “The Iraqi government receives full funding for the PMF. In fact, it is officially included as a line item in the Iraqi federal budget. Officially, more than $3 billion a year is allocated just for salaries, but when logistics, weapons, food and other operational costs are included, the PMF budget will likely exceed $10.” One billion dollars, and this is the size of the budget of a small country in the Middle East.”

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Qanbar said there is a way to change Iraq’s behavior: “If the United States wants to stop this situation, there are clear tools available. Sanctions must be imposed on the Iraqi government for funding these militias. Another powerful mechanism relates to Iraqi oil revenues, which are deposited in the US Federal Reserve. The United States can suspend transfers of that money unless Baghdad stops funding the Popular Mobilization Forces. And make no mistake: every terrorist who launches drones or missiles against Kurdistan, American interests, Gulf states, or military bases is effectively expelled.” He said that the Iraqi government pays them.

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani chairs negotiations between Iraq and the United States to end the international coalition mission in Baghdad, Iraq, January 27, 2024. President Joe Biden is scheduled to host Al-Sudani on Monday, April 15, for talks that come as tensions rise in the Middle East over the war in Gaza and Iran’s threats to respond to an Israeli military strike against an Iranian facility in Syria. (AP Photo/Hadi Mezban, Swimming Pool)

When asked whether the Islamic Republic of Iran had urged Shiite militias from the Popular Mobilization Forces to launch drones at Israel, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations said: “The mission declined to comment.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani said on Tuesday that his government “will not tolerate any attempt aimed at dragging Iraq into war or threatening the stability of the country,” according to what Kurdistan 24 reported.

Salwan Sinjari, Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Foreign Minister, referred Fox News Digital to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s page to obtain official statements from his minister and the government. He did not respond to follow-up messages and calls about whether the Iraqi government was failing to suppress the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Fighters of Iranian-backed Shiite groups celebrate in a street, after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s attack on Israel, in Basra, Iraq, October 1, 2024. (Essam Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein claimed that the government is seeking to persuade the Iranian-backed militias to disarm in January 2025, according to what was reported by Reuters. Long War Journal.

However, the Iraqi government has issued conflicting messages about the PMF over the years. In May 2025, Al-Sudani was quoted as saying: “Today, the Popular Mobilization Forces constitute an essential force in the defense of Iraq.”

The Iraqi ambassador to the United States did not immediately respond to inquiries via email, WhatsApp and phone. A second Iraqi diplomat said he was unable to provide comment to Fox News Digital.

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The Times of Israel reported on Thursday, after military strikes killed a senior officer from Kataib Hezbollah – the largest pro-Iranian militia in Iraq – south of Baghdad, that the Popular Mobilization Forces militia pledged to strike the Middle East interests of European countries that joined the “American Zionist” strikes on the Islamic Republic and its proxies.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the US State Department.

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