Iraq suspects Israel hit warehouses with new Chinese anti-aircraft missiles

Iraqi security officials believe Israel conducted recent strikes on two warehouses holding shoulder-fired air defense systems of Chinese origin. According to sources cited by the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the weapons were supplied by Iran to local militias. The report noted that the specific model of the systems was not identified and that evidence for the claim was partially unconfirmed.

The suspected attacks occurred last week, shortly after the shipments arrived at the locations. One source stated that the armed group responsible for the storage had selected sites they deemed difficult to reach or detect. This incident follows a mid-October explosion at a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) base in Baghdad's East Canal area on October 17. The PMF initially described the blast as an accident, but the newspaper reported it hit a stockpile of obsolete ammunition and injured five people. An anonymous Iraqi official said authorities were still investigating the circumstances, with no update provided more than a week later.

Other sources connected the mid-October blast to an earlier incident on October 1, when warehouses linked to Iran-backed groups in and around Baghdad were affected. These stores reportedly included drones intended for suicide attacks and reconnaissance. A security official said Iraqi authorities had not determined the exact nature of the strikes but possessed enough evidence to attribute them to Israel. The timing aligns with a broader pattern of tension, as Iranian-backed militias have previously blamed Israel for strikes in 2019 and near the Syrian border.

The context of these events is shaped by years of arms transfers from Iran to Iraqi militias, which have carried out attacks on Israel since October 7, 2023. Since US and Israeli airstrikes began in February, Iran has sought to use Iraq as a frontline. The country has faced over 1,000 strikes on the Kurdistan Region using drones and missiles, while Iran and allied militias have mounted 600 attacks across Iraq. The US withdrew its forces from Iraq on September 30, a deadline agreed with Baghdad, and has warned Americans against traveling to the capital.

Media reports have linked the movement of these systems to earlier claims that China supplied weapons to Iran, a connection described as unconfirmed. China's Foreign Ministry denied those reports on July 28. Separately, an Iran-backed militia attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline with a drone from Iraq's Maysan province, leading to the closure of that crossing amid US pressure and Iraqi concerns about trafficking.

A source in the Shi'ite Coordination Framework said ruling party leaders had spent weeks predicting that renewed war between Washington and Tehran would begin with the destruction of Iraqi factions' capabilities. Most major groups in the PMF, apart from the Badr Organization, are sanctioned by the US as terrorist organizations. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of militias that has attacked both Israel and the US, published a statement claiming Iraqi airspace was being violated.

Authorities have not yet released a formal statement confirming the origin of the projectiles. The investigation into the October 17 explosion and the subsequent warehouse strikes remains ongoing, with officials continuing to assess the damage and the implications for regional security.