Baghdad, July 31 -- Iraq has refuted claims that it had advance knowledge of or authorised recent joint US-Saudi strikes on its soil that resulted in the deaths of at least 20 members of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF).

According to Al Jazeera, citing Iraq's state news agency, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has deferred a scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the military action.

Addressing the developments, government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi stated that Baghdad "has not granted any approval for attacks on specific sites or groups within Iraqi territory" and emphasised that "the government had no prior knowledge of the attacks on Iraqi territory".

The official Iraqi response follows assertions b...