Bassem al-Awadi

Bassem al-Awadi is the official spokesman for Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi), the state-sanctioned paramilitary umbrella body formally integrated into the Iraqi armed forces in 2016. Following the 17 May 2026 drone strike on the perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the UAE, attribution questions focused partly on whether drones originated from Iraqi territory, given the proximity of PMF-controlled areas to the UAE's western approaches and the prior disclosure that Iran-linked groups operated in Iraq's western desert. Al-Awadi commented publicly to deny PMF involvement in or responsibility for any drone launched from Iraqi territory towards the Barakah plant.

The PMF was formed during the 2014 campaign against the Islamic State and encompasses dozens of factions with varying degrees of closeness to Iran's IRGC. As spokesman, al-Awadi is the body's primary interface with media on military and operational questions. The organisation has faced repeated allegations from Gulf States and Western governments of hosting IRGC-directed proxy capabilities; its spokesman role is therefore politically sensitive whenever cross-border drone attacks are attributed to Iran-linked networks operating from Iraqi soil. Iraq's government had separately denied authorising any foreign military presence on its territory when the New York Times reported Israeli covert bases in the western desert on 18 May 2026.

Al-Awadi's denial is part of a broader pattern in which the PMF publicly distances itself from specific Iranian proxy operations while Gulf States and Washington cite Iraqi-territory launch vectors in their attribution assessments.