Baghdad Suspects Israel of Striking Warehouses Storing Air Defense Systems

Baghdad suspects Israel of attacking two weapons depots in Iraq that stored Chinese man-portable air defense systems delivered from Iran for armed groups aligned with Tehran, the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported, citing sources in Iraq.

The two sites storing Chinese air defense systems were struck in air raids last week, the sources said. Officials are meanwhile considering an intelligence assessment that the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran may effectively have resumed before its official announcement, but this time on Iraqi territory.

Sources told Asharq al-Awsat that both sites were likely targeted in an attack that destroyed a large shipment of Chinese air defense systems. The systems had recently arrived from Iran and were handed over to one of the armed groups belonging to Iran’s network of proxy forces.

“The armed group that chose this location to store the air defense systems considered it very difficult to access or well concealed,” a source said, adding that “the attack took place shortly after the shipments arrived at the warehouses.”

On October 17, Iran-backed groups affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces announced that they had extinguished a fire caused by an explosion at one of their headquarters in Baghdad. They said five people had been injured in the incident and that an investigation had been launched.

The incident followed a series of explosions that began on October 1 and targeted warehouses belonging to pro-Iranian armed groups in various areas around Baghdad. The sites included depots storing drones intended for explosive attacks and reconnaissance missions.

According to the sources, several armed groups had been actively moving advanced air defense systems and drones from Iran to Iraq in recent weeks, storing them at their own facilities.

Unconfirmed reports have emerged of covert shipments from China to Iran, including man-portable air defense systems designed to engage low-flying targets such as helicopters and drones.

Two people close to the commander of one of the armed groups told Asharq al-Awsat that “the pro-Iranian groups are taking advantage of the ceasefire announced with the Americans to regroup and move strategic weapons.”

The Iraqi government, led by Ali al-Zaidi, has set June 30, 2027, as the final deadline for disarming armed groups that operate with de facto independence.

On July 28, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denied “reports of agreements to sell or supply Chinese missiles and air defense systems to Iran.”

It remains unclear whether the strikes were carried out by fighter jets or drones. Conflicting reports have emerged of Israeli fighter jets flying with aerial refueling aircraft through Iraqi airspace near the Iranian border. However, there has been no independent confirmation of this information.

A security official told Asharq al-Awsat that the authorities in Baghdad had sufficient evidence to hold Israel responsible for the operations, but had yet to determine exactly how the strikes were carried out.

On September 30, the secretary-general of the influential pro-Iranian group Kata’ib Hezbollah announced a commitment to halt military operations, but excluded what he called “attacks associated with flights and hostile violations of airspace.”

On Saturday, the group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it had “documented 171 violations of Iraqi airspace by combat and reconnaissance aircraft since the beginning of October 2026.”