Iraqi officials say Israel destroyed Chinese air defense stockpiles

Iraqi security sources told the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli aircraft struck two locations last week where Iranian-backed militias had stored shoulder-fired air defense systems of Chinese origin.

The report stated that the weapons were supplied by Tehran and arrived at the sites shortly before the explosions. One source described the storage locations as difficult to reach or detect. The newspaper noted that it did not identify the specific Chinese models involved and acknowledged that parts of the account remained unconfirmed.

The blasts followed a separate incident on October 17 at a Popular Mobilition Forces base in Baghdad's East Canal area. The PMF, which includes many Iranian-aligned groups, initially described the event as an accident. An explosion hit a stockpile of obsolete ammunition at the headquarters, injuring five people. An anonymous Iraqi official said authorities were still investigating the circumstances more than a week later.

Sources linked the mid-October explosion to earlier strikes on October 1. Those attacks affected warehouses in and around Baghdad holding drones intended for suicide attacks and reconnaissance. A security official said Iraqi authorities had gathered enough evidence to attribute the strikes to Israel, though they had not yet determined the exact nature of the weapons used.

The attribution fits a pattern of Iraqi accusations. Iranian-backed militias previously blamed Israel for strikes in 2019 and for an attack in Albukamal, Syria. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel established a secret airstrip in Iraq during its campaign against Iran. Unconfirmed accounts also suggested Israeli fighter jets transited Iraqi airspace near the Iranian border with midair refueling support.

Iran has armed Iraqi militias for years with missiles and drones. Since the US and Israel began airstrikes in February, Iran has sought to use Iraq as a frontline. The country has conducted more than 1,000 drone and missile strikes on the Kurdistan Region. Allied militias have mounted 600 attacks across Iraq, some targeting US diplomatic sites. The US withdrew its forces from Iraq on September 30.

Asharq Al-Awsat linked the current strikes to reports that China supplied weapons to Iran, a connection the newspaper described as unconfirmed. China's Foreign Ministry denied those reports on July 28. Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of militias, published a statement claiming Iraqi airspace was being violated.