At least 20 fighters have been killed and 32 wounded in joint United States and Saudi air strikes on Iran-backed militias across Iraq in the early hours of July 29, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) said. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American and Saudi aircraft had struck “terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq”. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a grouping of Iran-aligned factions, denied attacking Saudi Arabia and dismissed the accusations as “fabrications”. Rogue militias “must not give our brothers in the Gulf states a pretext”, he wrote on X. He said Iraq needed peace and could not afford a war, calling on the Iraqi Government to act against sectarian violence.