Drone attacks from Iraq increase...Is Iraq getting caught up in the Middle East war?

Recently, pro-Iranian militants in Iraq have stepped up drone attacks on Israel, raising fears that Iraq could be caught in a whirlwind of the Middle East war.

According to The Times on the 18th local time, the number of Israeli drone attacks by Shiite militias in Iraq recorded 90 last month, a significant increase from 6 in August and 31 in September.

According to a tally by the Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, a U.S. think tank, 65 drone attacks have been conducted so far this month.

Although the number of attacks has increased, most low-power drones from Iraqi militias are not yet a threat to Israel, such as being shot down.

But U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies fear Iran could turn to proxy forces in western Iraq to retaliate against Israel in the future at a time when Hezbollah and Palestinian militant Hamas have weakened significantly.

Michael Knights, a senior researcher at the Institute for Near East Policy Studies, pointed out that Iran may have already smuggled short-range ballistic missiles into Iraq by hiding them in tankers.

"If Israelis are killed in a drone strike from Iraq, Israel will attack Iraq," he said. "First they will attack facilities and then they will start attacking people with precision strikes like in eastern Syria."

Being involved in the Middle East war is a situation that the Iraqi government does not want either.

Iraq has sought to maintain an uneasy balance between Iran, which has a long border for more than two decades since the 2003 U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, and the United States, which has left some 2,000 troops in the country.

In the meantime, Iran has expanded its influence in Iraq by actively gathering sympathizers and increasing funding.

As the situation in the Middle East has changed rapidly, with Iran and Israel exchanging attacks, the Iraqi government recently dispatched officials to Tehran to ask them to persuade them to refrain from militias in the country, The Times said.

Some observers say that Iraq's main source of revenue, oil exports, could also be restricted if it gets involved in the Middle East war.

Iraq is the second largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia.

In the past two decades since Hussein's ouster, oil exports have served as a major source of financing for Iraq's economy.