ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Four members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in joint US-Saudi airstrikes on positions belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq on Wednesday, Tehran's state media reported.
"During recent joint US-Saudi airstrikes on Iraq's [eastern] Diyala province, four IRGC members … were martyred," Hassan Qamari, deputy governor for political, security and social affairs of Iran’s central-western Markazi province, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
He added that the IRGC personnel "were participating in securing Arbaeen processions."
Of note, Arbaeen marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali, who was killed in battle at Karbala in 680 AD. Millions of pilgrims - especially from Iran - travel to Iraq each year to commemorate the event with a symbolic 80-kilometer walk between the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala in the south.
The Iranian official identified the slain IRGC members as Abolfazl Mottaqi, Amir Abbas Derakhsh-Foroush, Ali Asghar Astaneh and Morteza Akbari, adding that their bodies would be transferred from Iraq to Iran for funeral and burial ceremonies to be held at a later date, Qamari said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Iraq’s PMF said "at least 20" of its members were killed and "32 others were injured” as a result of the joint American-Saudi strikes which targeted a number of the organization’s “official headquarters” in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and five other provinces.
“The announced numbers of martyrs and wounded are considered a preliminary toll subject to increase or update,” the PMF said.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) on the same day stated that Riyadh and Washington at dawn on Wednesday "conducted precision strikes in Iraq" against "Iran-aligned terrorists that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure."
"U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours," CENTCOM added, noting that "from February through April 2026, there were more than 600 attempted attacks on U.S. citizens and facilities by Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq."
Meanwhile, the Saudi defense ministry said it had launched the strikes "following reprehensible drone attacks carried out against the Kingdom by Iran-backed militias in Iraq," reaffirming "the Kingdom's determination to deter the perpetrators and its right to respond."
Iraq denounced the US-Saudi targeting of PMF positions across the country, noting the strikes coincided with its communication with “concerned parties" to verify Saudi claims of an attack on its oil facilities launched from Iraqi territory.
Baghdad also announced an "integrated security plan" to confront violations of its sovereignty and prevent any side from using Iraqi soil to attack neighboring countries as well.
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