FIRST ON FOX: The Israeli military spokesman confirmed to Fox News Digital this week that multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, have been launched into Israel from Iraqi territory since the start of the conflict with Iran to eradicate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons facilities, missile systems and terrorism infrastructure.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the Israeli military spokesman, said that the army has had a “near complete success” rate in stopping Iranian drones from hitting Israeli targets.
The drones fired from Iraq are presumed to come from the Iranian regime-controlled Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF. An umbrella organization of Shiite terrorists, that attacked Israel with drones in 2024 during Israel’s war against the Tehran-backed Hamas movement.
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An Iraqi Kurdish official told Fox News Digital, “Iraq has become a vessel for the Iranians. Is it so hard to see? I don’t see a distinction between the PMF and the state. They’re paid by the state, hold sovereign portfolios in this cabinet, go on foreign travel and now they’ve entered the federal legislature.”
The official continued: “In the last two decades, Iran has systemically taken over the state, weaponizing what were supposed to be institutions into tools to protect the Shia regime in Baghdad and punish any threat to it, including the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Through Baghdad and state institutions, it has economically strangled the Kurdistan Region, torn strips from our autonomy and exposed us to more attacks.”
An attack was reported on the country’s shrinking Christian community. The Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, from the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, wrote on X on Thursday: “A miracle no one was injured when 2 drones struck our community, 150 meters from our Catechist Center that serves 1,000 Catholic children. Our university & schools are also closed so the young can be with their parents. Please pray for us & for all who suffer in this war.”
Kurdistan Regional Government authorities confirmed the attack and said it was carried out by two drones.
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Phillip Smyth, an expert on Shiite militias in Iraq, told Fox News Digital about the strikes on the Chaldean Catholic school that “Kata’ib Hezbollah was first to talk about it and it was likely Kata’ib Hezbollah, but it is possible it was another two pro-Iran militias because they all work together on drone launches.”
A drone attack struck an oil field operated by U.S. firm HKN Energy in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Thursday, causing a fire and halting production, according to a Reuters report citing security sources and an oilfield engineer.
No group claimed responsibility, but Kurdish officials accused Iran-allied Iraqi militias of carrying out the attack.
If so, the attack would mean Iran‑aligned Iraqi militias, who have vowed to retaliate for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, have expanded targets from U.S. military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to U.S. energy interests.
Production at the field was halted as a precaution after an explosion at its power unit, the engineer told Reuters.
Some energy companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan shut oil and gas production at their fields as a precaution after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on neighboring Iran.
Entifadh Qanbar, a former spokesman for the deputy prime minister of Iraq, echoed the comments of the Iraqi Kurdish official in his statement to Fox News Digital: “The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are fully funded by the Iraqi government. In fact, they are formally included as a line item in Iraq’s federal budget. Officially, more than $3 billion is allocated annually just for salaries, but when logistics, weapons, food, and other operational costs are included, the PMF’s budget likely exceeds $10 billion. That is the size of the budget of a small country in the Middle East,” he claimed.
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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 involves Iraq’s oil revenues, which are deposited at the U.S. Federal Reserve. The United States could suspend transfers of those funds unless Baghdad halts the financing of the PMF. Make no mistake: every terrorist who launches drones or rockets against Kurdistan, U.S. interests, Gulf states or military bases is effectively being paid by the Iraqi government,” he claimed.
When asked if the Islamic Republic of Iran urged Shiite militias from the PMF to fire drones at Israel, a spokesman for Iran’s U.N. mission said, “The Mission declined to comment.”
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said his government is “not tolerating any attempt aimed at dragging Iraq into war or threatening the country’s stability,” according to Kurdistan24.
Salwan Sinjari, chief of staff to the Iraqi foreign minister, referred Fox News Digital to the Iraqi foreign ministry page for official statements by his minister and the government. He did not respond to follow-up messages and calls on whether Iraq’s government was failing to crack down on the PMF.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein claimed the government was seeking to convince Iran-backed militias to disarm in January 2025, according to the Long War Journal.
However, Iraq’s government has issued mixed messages about the PMF over the years. In May 2025 al-Sudani was quoted as saying, “Today, the Popular Mobilization Forces constitute a basic force in defending Iraq.”
Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. did not immediately respond to email, WhatsApp and telephone queries. A second Iraqi diplomat said he was unable to provide Fox News Digital a comment.
The Times of Israel reported on Thursday, after military strikes eliminated a senior officer from Kataeb Hezbollah — Iraq’s largest pro-Iran militia — south of Baghdad that PMF militias pledged to strike the Middle East interests of European nations that joined in the “Zionist-American” strikes on the Islamic Republic and its proxies.
Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. State Department.
