According to five officials who spoke to the Associated Press, the most hard-line factions now operate under Iranian advisers using a decentralized command structure. Days into the war sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, an Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq's Kurdish region and delivered a message that if militia attacks escalated near U.S. assets, Kurdish authorities should not complain as Tehran had devolved authority to regional commanders, a senior Iraqi Kurdish government official told the Associated Press.
Militias in Iraq have launched dozens of attacks since the war began on Saturday, targeting Israel and U.S. bases in Jordan and Iraq itself, according to multiple reports. Several Iran-backed armed factions have claimed attacks on the U.S. base at Erbil airport in Iraq's north in recent days. Other drones and missiles have been launched from sites in Iran's western desert at targets in Jordan, while militia in the south fired a missile into Kuwait, major media reported. On Tuesday, Shia militias in Iraq attacked a U.S. diplomatic facility in Baghdad, according to two sources. A spokesperson for Israel's military confirmed on Wednesday evening that drones had been launched at Israel from Iraq though 'not in significant numbers'. Militia bases south of Baghdad, and near Nasariya and Basra, have come under attack from small 'suicide drones' that are reported to have killed 15 fighters, mostly from Kataib Hezbollah, according to major media. On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on seven commanders and senior members of four hard-line Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups, major media reported. Israel and the U.S. are trying to degrade the capabilities of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq with airstrikes and special forces operations on the ground, according to analysts and former regional intelligence officials.
The Houthis have not reopened hostilities with the U.S. or joined Tehran's retaliatory attacks on Israel or Gulf neighbours or shipping since the war began, according to two sources. No attacks in the Red Sea have been reported since the Iran war began, the Joint Maritime Information Center said. The Houthis have received extensive financial, military and other support from Tehran over decades, major media reported. The Houthis described the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader of Iran as 'a new victory for the Islamic Revolution', according to the group. Iraq's state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that an attempt to launch missiles from an area in Basra province intended to target a neighbouring country had been thwarted and that security forces had seized a mobile launch platform carrying two missiles. On Thursday, the militias issued a joint statement telling European countries not to join the war and threatening their 'forces and bases in Iraq and the region', according to major media. Many Iran-backed militias are funded through the Iraqi state budget and embedded within the security apparatus, major media reported. In recent days, militias have also targeted the infrastructure of Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdish-dominated north of Iraq, according to two sources. On Tuesday, officials in Washington suggested they were considering mobilising the opposition Iranian Kurds, possibly for an invasion of Iran's north-west region, major media reported.