Major Gulf fighting restarts as US and Saudi strike Iran's allies in Iraq

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the formal Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and 32 wounded in U.S.-Saudi strikes targeting several bases across Iraq.

It was the first major U.S. military action in the Middle East since last Friday, when President Donald Trump abruptly suspended an intensive bombing campaign after 13 days, having been advised by commanders that the strategy had run its course.

The joint strikes potentially widen the conflict by drawing Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia into combat against Shi'ite proxies of Iran on a new front. It was the first time during the war that Saudi Arabia had publicly declared its participation in joint strikes alongside the United States.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, one of the few in the world to maintain close military and diplomatic ties with both Iran and the United States, called an emergency meeting. Washington has long called on the Baghdad government to crack down on Iran-backed paramilitaries, but efforts to do so in the past have provoked domestic unrest.