'Axis Deepens: Saudis Say Iraqi Militias Attacked in Coordination With Houthis'

Saudi Arabia blames Iran-aligned Iraqi militias for coordinating cross-border attacks with Yemen's Houthis on its eastern oil facilities. The joint assault highlights deepening operational integration among militant networks utilizing Iraqi territory as a central strategic node.

Saudi Arabia is blaming Iran-backed Iraqi armed factions for coordinating a series of recent attacks on its eastern oil infrastructure alongside Yemen’s Houthi forces.

The cross-border strikes, launched from Iraqi territory, targeted the kingdom's primary crude oil hub.

Regional intelligence assessments indicate the joint operation was executed under the direct supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In response, Riyadh and Washington carried out retaliatory airstrikes on Wednesday against militant sites in Iraq.

Subsequent obituaries published by Iran-aligned media confirmed the deaths of IRGC operatives, Iraqi fighters, and at least one Houthi member.

Deepening Axis Integration

The coordinated assault highlights a structural shift within Tehran's proxy network.

Following the collapse of the Assad government in Syria and the systematic degradation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraq is rapidly emerging as the primary operational hub for allied militant forces.

"There is now direct training and coordination between members of the Axis of Resistance themselves, not just between them and Iran," said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank's Middle East and North Africa program.

Operational ties between the Houthis and Iraqi factions, specifically the heavily armed Kataib Hezbollah, have accelerated significantly.

In 2024, Houthi leadership formalized a joint operations room in Baghdad, leading to their first shared military campaign targeting Israel later that year.

The Yemeni group now maintains a permanent physical footprint in the Iraqi capital, operating dedicated offices under its formal representative, Ahmed al-Sharafi, to liaise with local Shiite factions.

Border Vulnerabilities and Diplomatic Fallout

Iraq's expansive terrain and heavily porous 500-mile border with Saudi Arabia provide a strategic launchpad for covert regional strikes.

Security officials from Gulf states have previously traced hundreds of militant operations, including a March drone attack on the U.S. embassy in Riyadh and a strike on a UAE nuclear plant, back to Iraqi soil.

While the Houthis publicly claimed responsibility for the recent oil hub attacks to protest an alleged Saudi blockade on Yemen, Riyadh maintains it has imposed no such siege, citing the continuous arrival of maritime traffic at Houthi-controlled ports.

The immediate fallout from the U.S.-Saudi retaliatory bombings has severely fractured regional diplomacy.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting on Thursday in Riyadh with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Baghdad has announced an investigation into the cross-border strikes from its territory.

The incident directly challenges Zaidi's domestic agenda, which aims to consolidate state control over all armed factions by late September amidst intense resistance from militia leaders.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/axis-deepens-saudis-say-iraqi-militias-attacked-in-coordination-with-houthis-6pezep3mk5q

Sources:

Reuters

'Chinese Military Extracts US AI Model Data to Upgrade Defense Networks'

Chinese military researchers are systematically extracting reasoning from leading U.S. artificial intelligence models to train domestic defense systems. By utilizing "model distillation," the PLA adapts American AI outputs for drone warfare, cyber operations, and surveillance.

Chinese military institutions are systematically utilizing outputs from leading American artificial intelligence models to train domestic defense networks.

Researchers linked to the People’s Liberation Army have extracted reasoning data from platforms developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to upgrade tactical systems.

This practice bypasses Washington’s technology export controls and reduces reliance on advanced semiconductor hardware.

A review of over 80 Chinese academic papers and patents reveals widespread reliance on a technique termed "model distillation."

The process involves capturing the outputs of massive frontier AI models to train smaller, specialized systems that operate locally.

Military Distillation Tactics

Documents compiled by the Jamestown Foundation and Reuters illustrate how the PLA leverages American AI platforms as technical blueprints.

By extracting data from U.S. models, Chinese military engineers eliminate the prohibitive computing power required to build foundational systems from scratch.

Sunny Cheung, a Jamestown fellow who reviewed the military literature, noted the strategic value of this approach.

"Teaching a model the right answer is one thing but teaching it the reasoning behind the answer is much harder," Cheung stated.

"These papers show Chinese military-linked researchers are trying to transfer that expensive, proprietary reasoning from Western models into smaller systems they can control and deploy locally," he added.

Cyber Warfare and Tactical Deployment

PLA Unit 96941, a Beijing-based cyber-warfare and intelligence division, applied OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 to process sensitive source code.

Military engineers used the American model to summarize classified software code. They subsequently trained a domestic model on those exact summaries to operate entirely within closed Chinese military networks.

The National University of Defense Technology detailed another application in a 2024 academic paper. Researchers shrank an image-processing model through distillation for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles.

This lightweight model enables drones to analyze live video feeds for real-time navigation and targeting, even when communications links sever.

The Academy of Military Sciences similarly deployed distilled target-recognition models on tactical hardware during simulated maritime operations involving autonomous submarines and ships.

Intellectual Property Disputes

The unauthorized extraction of capabilities from American models has triggered significant bilateral friction ahead of U.S.-China talks on AI governance.

U.S. officials argue the practice infringes on intellectual property and nullifies existing technology export controls.

Beijing has firmly dismissed these accusations, framing Washington’s complaints as AI hegemonism while insisting American corporations execute identical extraction techniques.

Commercial AI developer Anthropic stated it blocks commercial access to its Claude platform in China and employs monitoring protocols to prevent misuse.

The company warned that distilled models often strip away the original system’s safety protocols.

Despite widespread utilization, industry executives highlight structural constraints within the extraction strategy.

Trevor Koverko, co-founder of AI data firm Sapien, observed that distilled networks inherit limited parameters.

"It is best understood as transferring selected capabilities into a cheaper, locally controlled system, not achieving independence from frontier AI," he stated.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/chinese-military-extracts-us-ai-model-data-to-upgrade-defense-networks-flaf3kqpims

Sources:

Reuters

'Spain and Morocco Fortify Ceuta Border After 49,000 Breached It in One Day'

 Security forces from Spain and Morocco rushed to barricade the border fence around Ceuta on Friday, effectively halting a massive wave of unauthorized crossings.

The rapid deployment follows an unprecedented breach on Thursday, when an estimated 49,000 individuals poured into the Spanish enclave by land and sea.

Casualties and Frontier Clashes

The sheer scale of the single-day influx rapidly overwhelmed local authorities and resulted in mass casualties.

Recovery teams have located at least 19 bodies in the waters surrounding the Mediterranean territory.

Moroccan riot police deployed water cannons to disperse crowds attempting to force their way through the perimeter gates.

Evidence of severe clashes littered the border zone, including the charred wreckage of a bus and seven passenger vehicles.

Despite the reinforced security presence, thousands of migrants remain gathered in the neighboring Moroccan town of Fnideq.

Groups continue to scout the coastline for alternative routes around the fortified barrier, with some preparing to swim into Spanish waters.

Ceuta and Melilla represent the European Union’s only land borders with the African continent.

Both autonomous cities, housing approximately 85,000 residents each, regularly face migration pressures, but Madrid designated this week's surge as the most severe crisis since 2021.

Judicial Rulings Spark Diplomatic Rift

Spanish officials indicated a recent judicial shift may have catalyzed the sudden rush. Earlier this month, Spain’s Supreme Court restricted special border rejection rules, ruling that migrants intercepted at sea cannot face summary expulsion.

Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres stated the government would proceed with eventual returns while navigating the new legal constraints.

Meanwhile, the Guardia Civil police union reported severe staffing shortages during the initial surge, leaving them unable to hold the line.

The unprecedented breach immediately fractured European political cohesion.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni threatened severe retaliatory measures, warning Rome is prepared to suspend the Schengen Area agreement with Spain to protect its own borders.

European Backlash Over Amnesty

Italian officials directly linked the border collapse to Madrid’s domestic policies.

"The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid Government's decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated.

The diplomatic offensive drew an immediate rebuke from the Spanish government.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares dismissed the Italian remarks as inappropriate and announced plans to summon Rome’s ambassador to lodge a formal protest.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska are scheduled to arrive in Ceuta on Friday to assess the fortified frontier.

Madrid maintains that while it will expel illegal entrants, its broader amnesty programs serve to strengthen the national economy.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/spain-and-morocco-fortify-ceuta-border-after-49000-breached-it-in-one-day-y305ahnis1a