The Militia Digest
Kata'ib Hezbollah answered the day's weapons argument in its secretary-general's own name. A statement issued in the name of Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi appeared in the late afternoon on the group's official social media centre, its television channel Al-Ittijah and the affiliated Sabereen News within about fifteen minutes, and it rejects relinquishing the resistance's weapons and pledges to develop them and enlarge the arsenal, to tighten security procedures and secrecy, and to make every aggressor pay "multiplied" costs. It names "the American-Saudi enemy" over a crime against "our sons" that it calls a dangerous precedent possibly founding a new phase in the region. KH names Washington and Riyadh as perpetrators but claims no retaliatory action, and no Iraqi faction claimed a strike in this window; no target, place or date appears. Shafaq News carried the arsenal pledge about twenty minutes later.
In the militia space, the same wording travelled across factional lines before the official text landed, and it changed on the way. Sabereen News (KH — affiliated) posted the hold-and-develop formula attributed to Hamidawi and then a longer version an hour later naming a crime by "the enemy" against "our sons" and stopping at deterrence; within five minutes Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) carried a version framing the trigger as "the aggression against Iraq" and adding a call to "cleanse our security space" — a phrase the KH-side posts did not use, and one the official statement later rendered as purifying the security space. Neither channel named a perpetrator, a target or a timetable.
Still in the militia space, Kata'ib Hezbollah's Diyala representation put a limit on the government's patience. Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official owned media) published a line in its name this afternoon saying the government's period for responding to "the Saudi aggression" "will not be long", with no target, no described response and no date. That runs against the position Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official owned media) broadcast overnight, in which the deputy head of the Academy for Political Development and Good Governance, Hisham al-Husseini, said any party responding to the Saudi aggression and embarrassing the government must be treated as outside the law, the state alone holding the right to respond.
Also in the militia space, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq's channel aimed the same event at an Iraqi ministry rather than at Washington and Riyadh. About seven minutes before the KH statement began appearing, Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official owned media) posted a video package headlined "Where is the Foreign Ministry? The Iraqi flag is 'absented' and the aggression goes unanswered", saying Iraq was subjected to Saudi-American aggression days earlier while everyone waited for a response, and tying that to the flag's absence at a reception. Al-Ahad's own text says the response is still awaited, and the underlying incident is not corroborated in the material here.
On the casualty question, Badr's Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) reported this morning from Diyala on a memorial for men it called martyrs of the 24th Brigade, held amid calls for a firm government position toward "the aggression". Forty minutes later the same channel announced that Hajji Sadeghi, described as the Supreme Leader's representative in the IRGC, had issued a message on the martyrdom of a number of PMF fighters in Iraq. Neither post names who killed them, and no militia claim of retaliation appears in the window.
On the economy, the finance minister has asked to appear before parliament over the country's financial crisis, reported at midday and again in the afternoon — the first institutional step on the salary file the militia channels spent the night arguing about, after Al-Ahad TV's guests said the Central Bank cannot fund salaries past month ten and that Iraq cannot borrow again from the World Bank. Nothing in the material shows the government adopting the compulsory-saving option those guests floated.