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KURDISTAN24Iraq PM Says Coalition Forces to Withdraw From Iraq on Sept. 303HKURDISTAN24Safeen Dizayee: Iraq Must Punish Groups Attacking Kurdistan Region4HKURDISTAN24Senior PMF Official, Three Members Arrested in Baghdad4HKURDISTAN24Al-Araji: Decision for War and Peace Belongs Solely to Iraqi State4HKURDISTAN24Iran Presses Iraq Against Disarming Armed Groups, Sources Say4H964 MEDIAGraham Arnold signs short term Iraq extension, turning down four-year deal5HIRAQI NEWSIraq, Qatar provide oil for loading inside Hormuz via bids5HRUDAWIraq coordinates with Germany, Russia ahead of US coalition withdrawal5HREUTERSIraq's Australian coach Arnold renews contract for six months5HIRAQI NEWSIraq to introduce new banknotes with three zeros removed6HRUDAWBaghdad ready to handle national security after US departure: Spox7HIRAQI NEWSIraq to raise oil exports via Turkey’s Ceyhan to 750,000 bpd8HIRAQI NEWSIraq suggests a security council involving Iran, Saudi Arabia10HTHE NEW REGIONIraq to slash three zeros from currency, introduce new notes10HIRAQI NEWSIraq foreign reserves decline 11.6% to $86.17B in June 202611HIRAQI NEWSSamarra Drug Company starts first domestic Moxifloxacin Antibiotic output11H
Iraq Monitorعين على العراقPrimary-source intelligence
THE BRIEFING · AN INDEPENDENT DIGEST

The Daily Digest

FRIDAY, 31 JULY 2026 · EVENING EDITION

The Daily Digest

Zaidi ordered a heightened alert across Iraqi military and Popular Mobilization Forces bases today, and Baghdad named modernizing the country's air defenses a top priority, after joint US-Saudi strikes on Popular Mobilization sites this week that the Iraqi government says it neither authorized nor knew of beforehand. The order covers PMF bases alongside army units, Baghdad presented the maximum alert as a vow not to be drawn into regional conflict, and Rudaw reported the air-defense pledge as Iraq's answer to the strikes rather than a reply in kind.

A Saudi source said Riyadh's response struck Iraqi militia capabilities that threatened Saudi security, and Basnews reported the Houthis had launched attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi militias; the Iraqi government's position is that no evidence supports the Saudi claim that drones flew from Iraq. A source told Kurdistan24 that Prime Minister Sudani has threatened to resign amid the rift over the Saudi visit.

Four bodies — Hasan Sami, Ahmad Jashni Aziz, Muhammad Mardan Hasoud and Ali Hamid Zaynal — were flown by aircraft from Baghdad to Nineveh this evening, reported by Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) after Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) posted a funeral for "the martyrs of the American-Saudi aggression"; no militia claim of a retaliatory action accompanies the deaths.

Harakat Hoquq member Ahmad al-Jabri said the Iraqi parliament must pass the Popular Mobilization Forces law "in response to the recent attacks", whose victims he put at more than 20 martyrs, naming no perpetrator, location or date; Harakat Hoquq is the political movement associated with Kataib Hezbollah, and the line was relayed this evening by Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) rather than issued by the Badr Organization. The PMF chief separately rejected calls to hand weapons over to the Iraqi state, and a former prime minister said force will not solve Iraq's weapons issue — the casualties invoked as grounds to legislate the force's status rather than to constrain it.

Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) published a graphic quoting an Iraqi MP — the caption and the on-image signature give different names, the image reading "MP Dr. Muqdad al-Khafaji" — warning that "a suffocating financial crisis looms and may paralyse the joints of the state," and that the cost must fall on corruption files, double salaries and unjustified privileges for senior officials rather than on the employee and the citizen. iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) reported that parliament will host the oil minister over contracts and "billions spent without results" in coming sessions, a framing carried in the channel's own headline and by no tracked peer, with the session not independently documented.

The desk's Brent settlement reads 91.82 USD/bbl, down 8.5% against the previous observation, and the Erbil parallel rate reads 150,450 IQD per 100 USD, down 0.2%. Rudaw asked how long Central Bank reserves and the money-printing scheme can carry the gap.

The governor of Baghdad asked the prime minister for "urgent and positive intervention" to stop Baghdad Municipality procedures removing more than 5,000 homes inhabited by more than 25,000 citizens under the New Sadr City project, in a scanned governorate letter posted this evening by Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) and referring to security directorates and military forces carrying out inspection and eviction, causing "chaos and anxiety".

Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) aired Nasrawi saying Karbala's fuel allocation has seen no increase this year and that the government has not answered the provincial council; no minister or ministry was named, and the desk observed no other tracked channel carrying either item. Iraqi authorities separately reported detaining 30 terrorism suspects and 325 others during July, and Kurdistan's Erbil-Baghdad file moved with Barzani and Halbousi discussing greater coordination.

THINGS TO WATCH
PMF law reaches parliament's agendamedium likelihoodhigh impactHarakat Hoquq's Ahmad al-Jabri has demanded parliament pass the Popular Mobilization law in response to the strike casualties, so a tabled draft would show whether the demand carries bloc backing beyond one relayed statement.
Prime minister's resignation threat put on the recordmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe threat rests on a single source cited by Kurdistan24 over the rift on the Saudi visit, so a statement from the premier's office either way would settle it.
First retaliation claim for the Nineveh deadmedium likelihoodhigh impactFour named bodies were flown from Baghdad to Nineveh with no militia claim of a retaliatory action accompanying the deaths, so a first claim under a named brand would mark escalation.
Evidence on launches from Iraqi soilmedium likelihoodhigh impactBasnews reported Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia launched from Iraq in coordination with Iraqi militias while Baghdad says no evidence supports the Saudi claim, leaving launch-site documentation the decisive observable.
Karbala and Baghdad grievances answered by the centrelow likelihoodmedium impactTwo faction outlets aired local complaints — Karbala's unanswered fuel request and the Baghdad governor's plea against evictions — that name the central government as the addressee, so a response from the prime minister's office would test the channels' framing.
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