Iran is forging a new ring of proxies to threaten US allies in the Gulf,
officials say
[September 09, 2026]
By SAMY MAGDY, SARAH EL DEEB and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
CAIRO (AP) — In July, Saudi Arabia and the United States bombed
Iran-backed militias in Iraq after blaming them for drone attacks on
Saudi oil facilities that had been claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels,
another Iranian ally.
Now, regional officials tell The Associated Press that the Houthis
helped the Iraqi militias plan and execute the two-day swarm attack,
showing a new level of coordination.
Iran spent decades building up armed groups on Israel's frontiers that
suffered major losses in the wars following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack
out of Gaza. Israel battered the Palestinian militants as well as
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which had been Iran’s most powerful ally.
Regional officials and experts say Iran is now using the Iraqi militias
and the Houthis to threaten Saudi Arabia and other American allies in
the Gulf in order to drive up the costs of the war launched by the U.S.
and Israel in February.
It is a risky strategy. A wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities
on Tuesday threatened to reignite full-scale war with the kingdom. Iraq
has ordered militias to disarm by the end of this month, though powerful
Iran-backed groups have refused to do so. A new American effort to
economically isolate Iran could spark further escalation.
Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq form a pincer movement
The Houthi involvement in the Iraqi drone attack was confirmed by two
Saudi officials, citing intelligence, and a senior Iraqi security
official. They said Houthi emissaries worked in an operations room run
by Iraqi militias.
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. responded with joint airstrikes that killed at
least 20 Iraqi fighters, six Iranian advisers and at least one Houthi
official. The death of the Houthi, not previously reported, was
confirmed by a Houthi official and an Iraqi militia member.
A U.S. military official said Houthis had been killed in previous
strikes in Iraq. The U.S. is concerned about the Houthi presence there
and their ability to launch attacks on other countries, including Saudi
Arabia, the official said.
Two officials with the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of
militias that is officially part of Iraq's security forces, denied
involvement in the attack on Saudi Arabia and denied that the Houthis
were operating under its auspices. The PMF includes powerful militias
backed by Iran that sometimes act independently.
All the officials and the militia member spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to speak to media. The Houthis did not
respond to a request for comment.
Cooperation grew during the war in Gaza
Cooperation between the Iraqi militias and the better organized Houthis
had grown throughout the war in Gaza, when they coordinated attacks on
Israel, according to the Houthi and regional officials. At the height of
the war, Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi spoke of a joint operations
room.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran and its allies
began firing on Gulf nations to broaden the conflict and inflict pain on
major oil producers hosting American forces.
“Iran has a hybrid strategy in the current war. We are not fighting on
one front and we are not using one tool,” Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to
Iran's parliament speaker, wrote on social media in June.
“The Houthis’ growing prominence during the Gaza war opened up a new
horizon in Iraq. Many groups there became eager to support the Houthis,
and in return, the Houthis started sharing their military expertise with
Iraqi militias,” said Ahmed Nagi, senior Yemen analyst at the Crisis
Group, an international think tank.
Now they are “squeezing Saudi like with pliers,” Nagi said.
Houthi blockade of Saudi Arabia ramps up pressure
A week before the drone swarm attack, the Houthis declared a blockade
against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, threatening another critical
trade route as the wartime disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has jolted
the world economy.
Since late July, the Houthis have carried out over a dozen attacks
against Saudi oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, according to
the war monitor group ACLED.
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Houthi supporters attend a rally against the Saudi-led coalition in
Sanaa, Yemen, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman, File)
On Tuesday, they launched a wave of attacks on oil and other
facilities in southern Saudi Arabia, wounding more than 70 people,
including women and children, Saudi authorities said.
The Houthi blockade has forced Saudi Arabia to adopt a “dark”
transit policy that includes turning off tracking signals on oil
tankers in the Red Sea, according to ACLED.
Saudi oil exports are in the crosshairs
Saudi Arabia had diverted much of its oil to the Red Sea after Iran
effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz. When the Houthis began
attacking, the kingdom started shipping more oil north to the Suez
Canal and Egypt's SUMED pipeline, whose flows have risen from
650,000 barrels a day in June to over 1.9 million in August,
according to global shipping monitor Kpler.
Last month, the Houthis showed they can target that route as well,
striking a Saudi tanker in the northern Red Sea with a missile. The
tanker had reportedly traveled from the Saudi port of Yanbu to the
Suez Canal, some 1,000 kilometers (700 miles) from Houthi territory.
The Houthis “are willing to weather some shorter term pain for what
they feel will be longer term gains,” such as extending their reach
along the Red Sea coast, said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert at the New
America think tank in Washington.
“The train to a return to full scale war has left the station, and
it's unclear if anyone is going to jump in to stop it,” he said,
citing the U.S. focus on Iran and the Saudis' reluctance to
intervene in Yemen again.
The Houthis have their own reasons for fighting Saudi Arabia
The rebels seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The following
year, the Saudis joined with Yemen’s internationally recognized
government in a counteroffensive, likely fearing that the kingdom
could end up with a Hezbollah-like group on its doorstep.
The civil war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N.
estimates, and at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. A
ceasefire that had mostly held since 2022 is now in tatters.
For years, a Saudi-led blockade has raised pressure on the Houthis
while exacting a heavy toll on ordinary people in rebel-held parts
of Yemen.
The Houthis have often responded by escalating hostilities, and
renewed fighting could allow them to gain control of energy-rich
areas of eastern Yemen, said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen expert at
Cambridge University’s Girton College.
The Houthis have no shortage of advanced weaponry
The Houthis, who control northern and central Yemen, have been
smuggling in advanced weapons for years, circumventing the blockade
and a U.N. arms embargo. Iran denies arming the rebels, but
Iranian-made weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in
intercepted shipments.
The rebels have an array of cruise and ballistic missiles, drones
and unmanned submarines.
Saudi-backed forces in Yemen are fighting back on a number of
fronts, including the crucial port city of Hodeida and the province
of Taiz along Yemen’s west coast. The Houthis have attacked Mokha,
the main Red Sea port still held by the government.
Saudi Arabia appears reluctant to directly target the Houthis again,
but if the rebels continue to escalate, “it will have to act
decisively once and for all,” Kendall said.
___
El Deeb reported from Beirut and Abdul-Zahra from Baghdad.
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed.
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