Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups, according to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners, reflecting growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias, two officials in the region said.
The assessments, which differ from official accounts, indicate that members of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance have deepened their ties and ability to inflict damage to U.S. allies in the region despite years of U.S and Israeli strikes on them from Lebanon to Iran after Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel.
The attacks included strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province, the kingdom’s main crude hub.
Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes with the United States on Iraqi sites on Wednesday that it said were linked to the attacks, officially blaming Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran. Yemen’s Houthis have said they carried out the attacks. Iraq has said it is investigating.
The officials in the region who said some of the attacks were carried out from Iraqi territory jointly by the Iraqi groups and the Houthis, added that it was under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
After the Saudi-U.S. strikes on Wednesday, Iran-aligned media mourned members of the IRGC, Iraqi fighters and at least one Houthi.
“There is now direct training and coordination between members of the Axis of Resistance themselves, not just between them and Iran,” said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank’s Middle East and North Africa program.
The attacks also show the increasingly important role Iraq is playing as a node in that axis after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the severe weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon, analysts said.
The Saudi, Iranian and Iraqi governments did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the Houthis, who have said their attacks on Saudi Arabia are in response to Saudi attacks in Yemen and aim to break a “siege” imposed by the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has denied imposing a siege, noting the arrival of dozens of ships to Houthi-controlled ports this year.
HOUTHIS AND IRAQI GROUPS HAVE A HISTORY OF TIES
Cooperation between the Houthis and Iraqi armed groups loyal to Iran has been longstanding, particularly with Kataib Hezbollah, the most heavily-armed and well-organized of the Iraqi factions.
In 2024, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi announced the existence of a joint operations room between the Houthis and Iraqi factions, and later that year the two groups announced their first joint operation targeting Israel.
The Houthis also have had a fixed presence in Iraq, including offices and a formal representative, Ahmed al-Sharafi, who has held publicized meetings with Iran-aligned Iraqi Shi’ite parties and armed factions in the country.
Red and green posters bearing the Houthi “Sarkha” – its slogan “God is greatest, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam,” have hung in parts of Baghdad for years.
