Iraq moves to revoke Saudi broadcaster's license after report angered militia supporters

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s commission governing media announced Saturday that it would take steps to revoke the license of a Saudi television station to operate in the country.

That came hours after dozens of supporters of Iraqi militias stormed and looted the office of the broadcaster, MBC, in Baghdad in protest over a report that described a number of Iranian-linked militant figures — including a prominent Iraqi militia leader — as “terrorists.”

The report on “terrorists” who had been killed this century mentioned former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden alongside a roster of Iran-backed figures.

They included Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries and founder of the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades.

Iraq’s Media and Communications Commission said in a statement that MBC had violated the country’s broadcasting regulations through “attacks on the martyrs, leaders of victory and heroic resistance leaders who are fighting the battle of honor against the usurping Zionist entity,” referring to Israel, and that it would order its executive office to cancel the station’s work license.

The station had already closed its doors following the attack.

Saudi Arabia's regulatory authority for media subsequently announced that it had referred “officials of a TV channel to investigation due to a news report that violates the Kingdom’s media regulations and policy.” It didn't name MBC.

The controversy came against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions surrounding the wars between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have played a minor role in the conflict, launching drone attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in the country in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel’s involvement in the wars and, increasingly in recent months, firing at targets within Israel.