Iraqi security forces have found drone launchers near the border with Iran, security sources told AFP on Saturday, after an attack on a Saudi pipeline that Riyadh and Baghdad said was launched from Iraq.
A security official said that “security forces found drone launchers near the Iraq-Iran border in the al-Tib” remote region in the southern Maysan province. A second security official gave the same account.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi said earlier Saturday he agreed to an Iranian request for a joint investigation into the discovery of drone launch platforms near the Iraqi-Iranian border, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday.
The investigation will examine the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the platforms near the border area, the statement said, after it was used to launch attacks on the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline.
An Iraqi security source and a government official told AFP that authorities ordered the closing of three border crossings with Iran.
The security source said that the decision is “part of an intelligence effort to track down the perpetrators and prevent their escape… and to hinder the smuggling of drones through these crossings.”
Meanwhile, Haibat Al-Halbousi, the Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said that the use of the country’s territory or airspace to threaten Saudi Arabia’s security was unacceptable and condemnable.
“We reaffirm the importance of adhering to the principle that the state is the sole possessor of weapons,” Al-Halbousi said.
An Iraqi military commander was dismissed early on Saturday after investigations confirmed the latest drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia originated from Iraq, according to a statement by Iraq’s prime minister’s office.
The commander led operations in Maysan province in southern Iraq, according to the statement.
