Within hours of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, US assets in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region suffered retaliatory attacks by Tehran-backed groups, dragging the country into the conflict that has since spread across the Middle East and beyond.
Since then, US assets located in Iraq have been subject to multiple attacks by pro-Iran groups and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC). The United States has also carried out attacks against these Iraqi groups.
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During a news conference in the capital Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said: “Iraq has become one of the countries directly affected by the ongoing conflict.” The country, Hussein said, faces attacks from “both sides of the conflict.”
Iran has also carried out near-daily attacks on US assets in energy-rich Gulf countries, causing oil prices to spike and threatening the global economy.
In this explainer, we look at what’s happening in Iraq and why.
What is happening in Iraq?
On Wednesday, a suicide drone was intercepted near the US consulate in Erbil and loud explosions were heard in the area, several news outlets reported, citing unnamed diplomatic and security sources.
On the same day, a drone strike in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan killed a member of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group, the Komala Party. The party blamed Iran for the attack, on which Iran has not commented.
A drone attacked a major US diplomatic facility in Iraq on Tuesday in alleged retaliation by pro-Tehran armed groups for the US-Israel war against Iran, The Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed security official and an internal alert from the US State Department.
The attack hit the diplomatic support center, a logistics center for American diplomats near the Baghdad airport and Iraqi military bases, the Post reported. It was not clear from the report if there were any injuries.
The report adds that six drones were launched towards the complex in Baghdad, one of which hit the US facilities and five were shot down. The security official, who according to the Post spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive security situation, was not aware of any victims.
The attack was likely carried out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group comprising armed factions backed by Iran, the Post reported, citing the security official.
On Tuesday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) said they attacked a US base in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. “The headquarters of the invading US army at the Al-Harir air base in the Kurdistan region was attacked with five missiles,” they said in a statement on their Telegram channel.
That same day, the Iran-backed Kataib Imam Ali group, affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said four of its members were killed and 12 wounded in airstrikes in northern Iraq that it blamed on the United States.
The group claimed its fighters were killed in an “American aggression” against its position in the Dibis district of Kirkuk province.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday that his country should not be used as a launching pad for attacks in the Middle East war, the Iraqi government said.
But Iraq, long a battleground between the United States and Iran, has been drawn into the conflict from the beginning, with attacks blamed on the United States, Iranian-backed groups and the IRGC.
In the past 12 days, drone and rocket attacks have hit Baghdad International Airport, which is home to a US military base and diplomatic facility, as well as oil fields and facilities. Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, has also been the target of multiple attacks.
Iran has also attacked Iranian Kurdish groups based in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, after reports that Washington planned to arm them to fight Tehran. Last week, the leader of an Iranian Kurdish nationalist group based in the Kurdish region told Al Jazeera that it is “very likely” that Iranian Kurds will carry out a cross-border ground operation into Iran.
But Babasheikh Hosseini, secretary general of the Khabat Organization of Iranian Kurdistan, said on Friday that there was no operation “at this time” but that the United States had contacted the group and was considering a campaign.
On the night of March 4, local media reported that Iraqi forces shot down a drone attempting to attack a US military facility, Victoria Air Base, near Baghdad International Airport.
What US military assets does Iraq host?
The United States maintains a presence at the Ain al-Asad air base in the western province of Anbar, supporting Iraqi security forces and contributing to the NATO mission, according to the White House. Iranian missile attacks targeted the base in 2020 in retaliation for the US killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Erbil Air Base in the Kurdistan Region serves as a hub for U.S. and coalition forces to conduct training exercises and battle drills. The base supports U.S. military efforts by providing a secure location for training, intelligence sharing and logistics coordination in northern Iraq, according to the congressional report.
As of early 2026, around 2,500 US troops were in Iraq. However, as the United States has withdrawn its troops from its bases in the Middle East, it is unclear how many of these soldiers remain in the country.
The United States maintains a limited number of military facilities in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, far fewer than during the years of occupation, but their exact number and size are not publicly disclosed.
These also include Base Victoria or Camp Victoria, which is located near Baghdad International Airport, and Harir Air Base, northeast of Erbil.
Why is Iraq being attacked from all sides?
“Iraq’s situation arises from the fragmentation of its state and its foreign policy,” Renad Mansour, senior researcher and director of the Iraq Initiative at the UK-based think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.
“Different parts of the Iraqi political and security landscape are aligned with competing external powers: some factions maintain close ties to Iran, while others are more closely connected to the United States.”
Mansour explained that due to this fragmentation, there is no single and coherent foreign policy that guides the State.
“While Baghdad has previously protested violations of its sovereignty by both Washington and Tehran, its ability to enforce those objections is limited.”
Mansour explained that this is because informal networks and militias in the country have influence and play an important role in decision-making and security.
Iran deepened its support for Shiite Islamist armed groups and parties after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Shia armed groups, which were part of the PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi, played a leading role in the defeat of ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq between 2014 and 2017. The ISIL group, which had the support of the Sunni minority, emerged after years of chaos and sectarian politics.
Thousands of members of pro-Iranian armed groups have been absorbed into state security institutions. Groups such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which are part of the PMF, are aligned with Tehran’s geopolitical interests.
Additionally, experts say Iran sees Iraq as the place where it can attack American interests to make Washington pay a higher price for its policies.
“Pro-Iran armed groups under the banner of the ‘Islamic Resistance in Iraq’ have attacked US military assets through asymmetric attacks,” Burcu Ozcelik, senior researcher for Middle East security at UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Al Jazeera.
Ozcelik explained that for Tehran, this puts pressure on American interests and undermines Iraqi Kurdistan’s reputation for stability by attacking its energy facilities and other key sites.
“In any case, Kurdistan is a sensitive border for Iran, given its proximity to Iran and the presence there of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups that Tehran considers hostile.”
Ozcelik said that while other Middle Eastern countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan, have also been drawn into the conflict, Iraq is different because Iranian influence runs much deeper there.
“Pro-Iran armed groups are not only present; they are entrenched and, in part, integrated into the country’s security architecture, even though Iraq also hosts key US interests,” Ozcelik said.
“That leaves Iraq much more exposed than most, and very likely to remain in the crossfire long after (US President Donald Trump) claims the war is over.”
