Washington: United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday, July 29, issued an expletive-laden warning to Iran, declaring that Tehran was “going to get a beating” following an attempted attack on US forces in the Middle East, hours after the US and Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said, “We are going to beat the f*****g s**t out of them,” as he vowed a forceful military response. He described Iranian-backed armed groups as “the cancer of the world” and claimed the operation in Iraq had been coordinated with the Iraqi government.
Trump said the attempted attack had caught US forces by surprise, leaving troops with only minutes to intercept incoming missiles. He added that the joint operation was launched in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities.
The remarks came after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had carried out precision airstrikes alongside the Saudi Air Force against logistical sites and weapons depots used by Iranian-backed militias in eastern Iraq.
According to CENTCOM, the targeted groups had received instructions from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to attack US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure. The command described the operation as a response to more than 30 drone attacks launched by the militias over the previous 72 hours.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence confirmed its participation in the operation, saying the strikes were conducted under the Kingdom’s right to self-defence after recent drone attacks targeted its oil facilities. The ministry said the action was consistent with Article 51 of the UN Charter and stressed that Saudi Arabia did not seek further escalation but would respond to any aggression against its security.
The overnight operation targeted locations across Basra, Wasit, Diyala, Karbala, Babylon, Baghdad and Nineveh, marking the first reported Saudi military operation inside Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) said at least 20 people were killed and 32 others injured in the strikes, describing the attacks as a “highly dangerous escalation”.
Despite Trump’s assertion that Baghdad had coordinated the operation, Iraqi authorities strongly condemned the airstrikes. The Iraqi Presidency described the attacks on PMF headquarters in several provinces as an unacceptable violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and international law, reiterating its rejection of the use of Iraqi territory to launch attacks against neighbouring countries or to settle regional and international disputes.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also criticised the strikes, warning that they represented a “dangerous overstep of the principle of Islamic brotherhood”.
Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ali al-Zaidi postponed a planned visit to Riyadh following the strikes, citing the day’s developments, and ordered an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to assess the security situation and the consequences of the military operation.
The latest developments mark a sharp escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran, raising concerns that continued military exchanges involving Iranian-backed groups could further destabilise the region.
