Parliament probes PMF warning delay before US-Saudi strikes
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraqi Parliament First Deputy Speaker Adnan Feyhan stated on Saturday that senior officials had received confirmed information about impending US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) sites “six hours” before the July 29 attacks, raising questions over “why personnel were not evacuated earlier.”
Speaking at the eighth Baghdad Dialogue conference, Fayhan said Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who had just returned from Turkiye, held a meeting at Baghdad airport with his office director, the director of the commander-in-chief’s office and PMF Commission Chairman Falih al-Fayyadh after receiving information that PMF positions would be targeted.
“The simplest measure should have been to notify the units and evacuate the sites immediately.” According to Fayhan, an evacuation order was issued only after a PMF site in Basra had already been struck.
He ordered the formation of a parliamentary fact-finding committee and the summoning of officials involved to establish why the units were not warned earlier. “This is not political targeting. We want to know the truth.”
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on July 29 that US and Saudi forces had carried out coordinated strikes on sites belonging to Iran-backed armed groups that it accused of attacks on US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure.
The PMF Commission said the strikes killed at least 20 PMF members and wounded 32.
Read more: Wednesday's US-Saudi attack on Iraq: What Is Known
