TEHRAN, Iran, June 19 (World Daily Times) — Reuters reported, citing eight Iraqi sources, that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps set up secret cells in Iraq to launch drone attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces. If accurate, the account shows a shift in how Iran-linked operations may be organized: smaller teams, working outside the usual militia chains, can be harder to trace and easier to deny.
Three of the sources told Reuters the cells were built to bypass established militia networks and avoid detection. They described three or four cells, each with about 10 elite Iraqi Shi’ite fighters. That size matters. Smaller groups can leave fewer traces, and they can make it harder for Baghdad or foreign governments to tie an attack to a larger armed faction.
The sources also said some members came from Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Shi’ite factions with thousands of fighters. But the new cells were said to operate outside that group’s command structure and report directly to the IRGC. That, if correct, would point to a tighter Iranian hand and a more covert chain of command than the one often used by public militia groups.
Three Iraqi security sources said the cells launched at least seven drone attacks from desert locations near Basra and Samawa between April 20 and May 17. The targets were said to be in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Those countries sit in a region where attacks can quickly widen into a broader security crisis, especially when American forces are present.
The same sources said investigators relied on human intelligence, intercepted communications and evidence from launch sites. Reuters also reported that Iraqi officials viewed the covert setup as a way to preserve plausible deniability, shift blame away from major Iran-backed groups and reduce U.S. pressure on Baghdad to disarm them. That helps explain why the allegations matter beyond the drone strikes themselves: they suggest a shadow network designed not only to hit targets, but also to complicate accountability.
The Reuters report did not identify any arrests, charges or court filings, and no public response from the IRGC, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or the UAE was included in the supplied material. For crime and justice readers, the story remains an allegation-based account, but one that points to a possible regional pattern: cross-border attacks planned from Iraqi territory, with responsibility deliberately obscured.
