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.