Sunday, 2 August 2026

Iraq's government formed a security committee tasked with preventing attacks against neighbouring states, the step announced today after Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered a deterrence plan on 1 August to stop attacks launched from Iraqi soil, in the wake of the drone strikes on Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The Popular Mobilization Forces have emptied outposts across Nineveh over fears of further US strikes, and Iraqi News reports that a raid on a base of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba failed, which it frames as exposing the challenges in the disarmament push. Jordan has threatened to strike Iranian-backed militias in Iraq if they launch attacks on the kingdom.

The Iraqi government today denied reports that US aircraft had landed at Ain al-Asad air base. The Iraqi Security Media Cell said an explosion at Camp Taji was caused by ammunition detonating in the heat, attributing it to no attack — both statements are the state moving to strip a hostile reading off events at its own bases on a day US embassies in Baghdad and Amman have told Americans to prepare for possible escalation across the Middle East.

Al-Ahad TV, Asaib Ahl al-Haq's official channel, published late this morning what it presented as a signed Council of Ministers order dated 30 July ending Haidar Hasan Jabal al-Shamri's assignment as acting head of the Diwan of the Shia Endowment and returning him to Baghdad University's College of Medicine. The desk's visual review notes the page is partly obscured and that the document's authenticity would need corroboration; no other tracked channel carried the document or the decision, and no Endowment, Council of Ministers or Najaf body is on record responding. The same channel turned in the afternoon to the budget, reporting Ammar al-Hakim and al-Zaidi affirming that Iraq's financial crisis should be met by diversifying income sources and oil-export outlets.

The oil ministry said a new Basra-Ceyhan pipeline should be completed in three years, the day after Baghdad and Ankara signed the one-year, 750,000-barrels-a-day Ceyhan agreement that Iraq's state news agency calls a cornerstone for securing exports. A member of parliament urged the central bank to create more money while the state runs without a budget, an analyst told 964 Media that Iraq needs a 10-trillion-dinar borrowing law to pay salaries, and one assessment carried by Shafaq puts the problem as a cash-flow strain rather than bankruptcy.

NATO will open an office in Baghdad, an official said today, while the US-led coalition presses ahead with what Washington describes as a pre-planned withdrawal from the Kurdistan Region — a pull-out Rudaw reports leaves the region exposed as Iranian attacks intensify. The alliance's arrival in the capital and the coalition's departure from the north are being announced in the same week.

An official said Baghdad is committed to facilitating the return of displaced Yazidis, on the day the President of the Kurdistan Region congratulated the Yazidi Emir and Yazidis on the Chelay Havin festival, calling the Region a homeland for all. Kurdistan24 reports separately that Türkiye, Iraq and the KRG have reached an understanding to close Makhmour camp under a new peace framework.

An Iraqi court recovered IQD 20 billion in corruption and money-laundering cases, and investigators raided an exchange company as part of the Al-Jumaili corruption investigation. Both moves land while the government is running without a budget and short of cash to pay salaries.

Al-Ahad TV, Asaib Ahl al-Haq's official channel, published late this morning what it presented as a signed Council of Ministers order dated 30 July ending Haidar Hasan Jabal al-Shamri's assignment as acting head of the Diwan of the Shia Endowment and returning him to Baghdad University's College of Medicine. Visual review of the graphic notes the page is partly obscured and that its authenticity would need corroboration. No other tracked channel carried the document or the decision, and no Endowment, Council of Ministers or Najaf body is on record responding. The same channel spent the previous evening pressing the government over strikes its guests attribute to Saudi Arabia; this afternoon it turned to the budget, reporting Ammar al-Hakim and al-Zaidi affirming that Iraq's financial crisis should be met by diversifying income sources and oil-export outlets.

Kata'ib Hezbollah's official channel Al-Ittijah TV posted a single line this evening reporting that the 20th Revolution Alliance (tribal alliance affiliated with Kata'ib Hezbollah) in Wasit condemned "the American-Saudi attacks" and warned about "the current circumstances". The post names no location, no casualties, no timetable and no target, and no supplied coverage identifies the attacks it references. It is the first evening reference to the Saudi strike allegations Al-Ahad TV's guests aired the night before, and no militia claim of responsibility for any retaliation appears in the window.

Shafaq News reported this morning that the Popular Mobilization Forces cleared their outposts in Nineveh province over fears of U.S. strikes. The report names no formations, no timing and no state order, and no PMF statement and no tracked faction channel addressed the reported movement. That silence follows the Interior Ministry Intelligence Directorate memo Sabereen News published on 1 August requesting coordinates and personnel numbers for PMF sites, which neither the ministry nor the PMF has acknowledged or denied in the material in hand.

Two Kata'ib Hezbollah-affiliated channels, Unit 10,000 and Sabereen News, built a running account of an incident at Taji Camp in Baghdad this afternoon over a 38-minute span: smoke rising for "unknown reasons", then ammunition rupturing inside storage depots "due to the fire", then a flagged update that detonations were continuing. Neither channel named a perpetrator and no party claimed responsibility. The Iraqi Security Media Cell later said the blast was heat-triggered ammunition, matching the channels' fire account.

Sabereen News, Kata'ib Hezbollah-affiliated, reported late this morning that security bodies raided the Sharqat home of the former head of the Baiji refinery's follow-up department, who held the post under Adnan al-Jumaili, alongside raids on family homes in al-Suwaidan village where searching and digging continued in the al-Jumaili investigation. The post names no security body, no offence and no arrests. Separately, Shafaq News reported a raid on an exchange company in the same al-Jumaili corruption case, and an Iraqi court recovered 20 billion dinars in corruption and money-laundering cases.

On Arbaeen, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya's official channel FAA said this evening that its 19th Brigade's communications section had begun securing the communications system in its Karbala area of responsibility to link field units under the security plan; the claim is the group's own and uncorroborated. Badr Organization's Al-Ghadeer TV and the affiliated Watan TV separately carried National Security Service spokesman Arshad al-Hakim's Arbaeen figures in full — ten arrests on suspicion of extremist affiliation, 55 rumours monitored and handled, and an electronic inventory of 16,000 Husseini processions in a central database — adding no faction voice of their own.