Iran’s Revolutionary Guards relied on Iraqi shadow cells in attacks against Gulf states
Iraqi sources reveal that cells composed of elite Shiite fighters carried out at least seven drone attacks from desert locations near Basra and Samawah against targets in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Iraqi sources have revealed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps established new covert cells inside Iraq to carry out attacks against Gulf countries hosting U.S. forces, avoiding reliance on existing armed faction networks in order to conceal these operations. This development places Baghdad in a difficult position, particularly as Iraq has sought to distance itself from the conflict in order to preserve its relations with Gulf states and strengthen partnerships that could attract further investment.
Three sources stated that three or four cells, each consisting of approximately ten elite Iraqi Shiite fighters, launched at least seven drone attacks from desert areas near the southern cities of Basra and Samawah against targets in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates between April 20 and May 17.
Several members of these cells reportedly belong to the so-called “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a coalition of hardline Shiite factions comprising thousands of fighters. However, according to the sources—which include two Iraqi military officials, a security official, and five leaders of local armed groups—these new cells operate outside the coalition’s command structure and report directly to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The five armed-group leaders said that the creation of these new cells in Iraq, a development not previously disclosed publicly, reflects a shift in the Revolutionary Guards’ strategy aimed at preserving Iran’s ability to project influence throughout the region at a time when its allied armed groups are experiencing significant weakening and depletion of their military and economic resources.
Iraq, a Shiite-majority country, hosts numerous armed factions, many of which maintain close ties with Tehran. These militias form a central pillar of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” the regional alliance aligned with Iran that stretches from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq.
Groups operating under the banner of the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” have claimed responsibility for dozens of drone and missile attacks targeting U.S. interests in the country, prompting deadly retaliatory airstrikes since the United States and Israel launched their offensive against Iran on February 28. However, no large-scale mobilization of Iran-aligned groups has taken place within Iraqi territory.
Since last year, several influential Shiite factions have signaled their willingness to lay down their arms and focus on domestic politics in order to avoid escalating tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Retired Iraqi brigadier general Jassim Al-Bahadli and two members of the ruling Shiite coalition believe that this development may have prompted the Revolutionary Guards to establish groups operating under their direct control.
Two of those factions, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, announced this month that they would begin handing over their weapons to state authorities following repeated U.S. warnings to the Iraqi government to dismantle armed groups operating within the country.
Al-Bahadli, an expert on Shiite armed organizations, stated that the newly established groups appear smaller in size, more ideologically hardline, and more tightly controlled, reflecting Iran’s need to preserve resources amid growing economic pressure.
On Wednesday, the U.S. and Iranian presidents signed a temporary agreement aimed at ending the war, while subsequent negotiations are expected to address contentious issues such as the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials, however, stated that Tehran’s support for “resistance groups” is not open for discussion and that the agreement does not address that issue.
The U.S. Department of State has repeatedly emphasized its expectation that the Iraqi government take immediate measures to “dismantle all instruments of Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iran-backed terrorist armed groups operating in Iraq.”
During a meeting held on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi and U.S. envoy Tom Barrack discussed Iraq’s plans to ensure the “complete disarmament and dismantling of armed groups” operating outside the authority of the Iraqi state and to guarantee that “Iraqi territory is not used by any party to threaten regional peace,” according to a joint statement.
The war involving Iran inflicted severe damage on the world’s most important energy-producing region, disrupting supplies and causing inflation to rise sharply. Tehran responded to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments passed, while also launching a large-scale campaign of drone and missile strikes against neighboring Gulf countries.
The three Iraqi military and security sources stated, based on a combination of human intelligence, intercepted communications, and evidence collected from launch sites, that new groups emerged in Iraq during the conflict. Operating under unfamiliar names and maintaining an extremely limited public profile, these groups reportedly carried out at least three drone attacks against Kuwait, two against Saudi Arabia, and two against the United Arab Emirates.
The sources added, without providing further details, that the targets included Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, where U.S. forces are stationed, as well as a military building at Kuwait International Airport. They further stated that the attacks against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were intercepted, although the intended targets could not be independently confirmed.
