TEHRAN, Iran, June 19 (World Daily Times) — A Reuters report citing Iraqi sources says the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps set up secret cells in Iraq to launch attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces. The allegation matters because it points to a more hidden campaign than the region’s better-known militia network: instead of relying on established proxies, the report says the IRGC built smaller, deniable groups inside Iraq itself.
According to eight Iraqi sources cited by Reuters, including two Iraqi military officials, one security official and five local militia commanders, the cells were designed to bypass existing militia channels and avoid detection. The sources described three or four cells, each with about 10 elite Iraqi Shi’ite fighters. Some of the members, Reuters reported, were drawn from Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Shi’ite factions, but the new groups were said to operate outside that command structure and report directly to the IRGC.
Three Iraqi security sources told Reuters the cells carried out at least seven drone attacks from desert locations near Basra and Samawa between April 20 and May 17. The reported targets were in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Those sources said their assessment was based on human intelligence, intercepted communications and evidence gathered at launch sites.
The Iraqi officials cited by Reuters said the alleged structure gave the IRGC plausible deniability, shifting blame away from the better-known Iran-backed groups that have long operated in Iraq. They also said the arrangement could ease pressure on Baghdad to disarm those factions. No arrests, public charges or court records were identified in the reporting. For Iraq, the significance is that the alleged activity starts on Iraqi soil and could place the country at the center of a wider Gulf security dispute, even though the claimed attacks were directed at neighboring states rather than Iraqi targets.
