Iraq tries to avoid regional fight as militias fire at Israel

Nervously watching Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, Iraq is working to avoid being drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iran-backed armed groups launch attacks on Israel from Iraqi soil, sources familiar with the matter say.

Two decades after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is experiencing relative stability with high revenue from oil sales funding a service-based agenda that has turned much of the country into a construction site.

Iraq does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government is wary of regional conflicts that could affect its delicate balancing act between Washington and Tehran, both states it is allied with.

Spillover from regional conflict resulted in months of tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in Iraq and the region that only subsided after Iran intervened in February.

But Sudani’s government has not been successful in a push to convince the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a coalition of Iran-backed armed groups – to stop firing rockets and drones at Israel, according to four sources in Iran-backed armed groups and two government advisors.

Two visits to Iran by Iraq’s top security officials in the past two months, seeking Tehran’s help to rein in its allied Iraqi factions, failed, the sources say.

“The Iraqi delegation received a cold reception in Tehran… The answer was: those groups have their own decision and it is their call to decide how to support their brothers in Lebanon and Gaza,” said a senior Iraqi security official briefed on the visits.

Baghdad turned to Washington, asking US officials to intervene with Israel to prevent retaliation for the attacks, including one that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 20 on October 4, the sources say, the first time such an attack has been reported to cause fatalities.

“Washington was understanding of the repercussions of possible Israeli strikes in Iraq and pledged to help,” says an Iraqi foreign ministry official.