Iraq seizes drone-launching platform used for targeting Saudi oil pipeline

Iraqi authorities have said their security forces have located and seized a drone-launching platform allegedly used in an attack that struck Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline.

In a statement published by the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Saturday, Lieutenant General Saad Maan, head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, said that an intelligence and security task force had tracked down and seized the launch equipment.

He also said that forensic and technical experts were continuing work to identify those behind the attack and that Iraq’s commander-in-chief had approved an Iranian request to join the investigation and review its findings.

Baghdad is maintaining direct communication with Saudi authorities to share intelligence, Maan said.

“Iraq adopts the principle of ‘preventive sovereignty’, which means not only preventing attacks on our territory, but also not allowing our land to be a launching pad against any other country, or for Iraq to be part of a proxy war,” he said, as quoted by INA.

Several people were injured after several drones launched from Iraq struck the East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions on Thursday, Saudi authorities said. The pipeline, which carries about 4 to 5 percent of the global oil supply and allows Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, was shut down as a precaution.

The kingdom also said it had decided against retaliating for now, following a request from Baghdad.

Saudi authorities traced the launch site to Maysan province in southeastern Iraq, a region near the Iranian border where Iran-aligned militias have long maintained a presence.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Rammal reported that the Iraqi authorities had pointed to the al-Tayeb border district in northeastern Maysan province near the Sheeb crossing, east of Amara, and encompassing both the Duwayrij River and Tayeb Island as the likely launch site.

Rammal said that with the targeted areas covering roughly 1,100 kilometres (684 miles) from Medina and 800km (497 miles) from Riyadh, the attack likely involved “not tactical drones, but long-range, advanced ones”.

Iraqi army spokesman Sabah al-Numan said earlier on Saturday that security and intelligence agencies were pursuing operations to arrest all those involved.

Following the strike, Iraqi authorities temporarily closed several border crossings with Iran, including Shalamcheh, Chazabeh and Mandali, for security inspections before partially reopening them for humanitarian traffic.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi reshuffled military commanders in border regions, including Maysan province, in the wake of the attack.

Al Jazeera correspondent Samer al-Kubaisi named the Maysan operations commander and the provincial police chief as among those dismissed, with a group of security commanders in the province now under investigation over the attacks.

Political analyst Salim Zakhour told Al Jazeera that Saudi Arabia “did not go toward direct escalation on the ground”, but instead sought “political containment through the Iraqi government”.

He said the developments of the past few days are “extremely complex for Saudi Arabia”, pointing to the Houthis’ advance towards Bab al-Mandeb alongside the East-West oil pipeline strike.

This leaves Riyadh in a major defensive position, requiring “real, practical steps to deter these attempts,” Zakhour added.