ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in the US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases in Iraq, IRGC-affiliated media reported on Wednesday.

Mehr news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, said four members of the force were killed at a PMF base in Iraq’s Diyala province.

Earlier, two PMF sources told AFP news agency that five Iranian advisors were among the casualties in the Diyala base.

The Iranian Consulate General in Najaf also posted an image of coffins draped in Iranian flags, writing, “Iranian and Iraqi blood has mingled once again.” 

Following a series of drone attacks in Saudi Arabia that Riyadh accused Iran-aligned factions in Iraq of orchestrating, the Saudi and US militaries conducted extensive airstrikes on Iraqi soil that killed at least 20 members of the PMF.

The attacks were widely condemned by the Iraqi political sphere and particularly by pro-Iran militias in Iraq, who have issued stark warnings to both the Iraqi government and the US. 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella network of pro-Iran Iraqi militia groups linked to the IRGC, gave Baghdad a nearly one-week deadline to respond to the strikes. 

It further slammed Saudi Arabia as “nothing but a treacherous dagger or a dirty tool manipulated by the White House,” warning that a “response to the American enemy is inevitable and may target its agents in Saudi Arabia whenever the situation demands it.” 

Pro-Iran militia groups have also called on Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to cancel a visit to Riyadh scheduled for Thursday, and for the premier to cancel all recent agreements signed during his visit to Washington. 

On Wednesday, Iraq’s National Security Council condemned the US-Saudi strikes on PMF bases in an emergency meeting chaired by Zaidi. 

The council “decided to develop a comprehensive security plan to secure the territory and counter any violations of Iraq’s sovereignty,” it said in a statement.

The PMF is an umbrella group of Shiite militias that officially operates under the authority of the Iraqi state, but has been repeatedly criticized for including pro-Iran factions that operate at Tehran's behest.

Earlier in July, Zaidi visited both Washington and Tehran.