Monday, 10 August 2026

Baghdad tightened the disarmament file on Monday against factions that have until Sept. 30 to hand weapons to the Popular Mobilization Forces: the government says it has registered 6 million firearms and closed 71 'fake' PMF offices, offices the PMF itself disavowed as 'ghost' sites and denied any link to. Groups that refuse to hand over weapons will face legal action, the government says the deadline cannot be ignored and there will be no compromise on the initiative, and the ministry now treats any unauthorized drone launch from Iraqi soil as a 'terrorist act'.

Still on the security file, the reckoning over the strikes on PMF headquarters that Washington and Riyadh are named as having carried out ran in three directions at once. Parliament formed a committee to investigate the strikes, Iran urged Iraqi militia groups to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia, and US President Donald Trump said Washington will demand compensation for soldiers killed by Iran-made IEDs in Iraq. The prime minister's office says no date is set for his rescheduled Riyadh visit.

In the militia space, the blame turned inward this afternoon: a spokesman for Muqtada al-Sadr demanded an internal PMF investigation into the leadership's alleged failure to notify or evacuate its bases beforehand, and Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) sharpened that into a question about who prevented the evacuation decision three hours before the bombardment; the PMF's reply, aired on Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official), was a denial that Falih al-Fayyadh personally had prior knowledge — narrower than the charge. No militia has claimed retaliation, and no Iraqi official is named in the collected material as having blocked an evacuation; the militia digest beside this one has the channel-level detail.

On the domestic front, the graft crackdown reached a sitting minister's office and the money held abroad: authorities arrested senior Trade Ministry official Hashem al-Sudani, MPs convicted of corruption have lost their police protection details, and Baghdad has brought in international experts to trace stolen funds held overseas.

On the economy, protests over electricity left two people injured in Dhi Qar, and farmers protested in Baghdad over unpaid dues and contract renewals. The oil ministry set out dual pipeline routes to Fishkhabur and Baniyas via Chevron, presented as expanding marketing options after shipping disruption pushed Iraqi trade toward the Syrian market, and Iraqi Airways resumed direct Basra-Delhi flights.

In the north, Kurdish lawmakers moved to block food-ration card transfers in the Article 140 disputed areas, and Kurdistan24 reports an Iraqi army trench has destroyed 49 acres of Kurdish farmers' land in Kirkuk. Turkey's parliament opened debate Monday on a pardon-like bill for thousands of PKK militants, a text the PKK has criticised.

The blame for the strikes on Popular Mobilization Forces headquarters that Washington and Riyadh are named as having carried out turned inward this afternoon, onto the PMF's own leadership. A spokesman for Muqtada al-Sadr demanded an internal investigation into the leadership's alleged failure to notify or evacuate its bases beforehand, carried by three outlets, while Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official) aired a PMF denial that Falih al-Fayyadh personally had prior knowledge — a narrower proposition than the one raised. Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) built three items in half an hour around a sharper version, asking who prevented the evacuation decision three hours before the bombardment, while Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) pointed the same event outward, reporting new parliamentary blocs joining the Huquq bloc's drive to pursue the attackers. No militia has claimed retaliation, and no Iraqi official is named in the collected material as having blocked an evacuation.

In the militia space, AAH's channel took the argument one step further than an investigation. Political analyst Muhammad al-Fandi, on air on Al-Ahad TV, said the prime minister holds the power to suspend the head of the PMF authority from his post and alleged clear negligence and dereliction by him during what al-Fandi called the Saudi-American aggression. The position is the analyst's, not a statement issued by AAH, and no other tracked channel echoed or contested the removal argument.

On the government's response, Al-Janoub TV published spokesman Haidar al-Aboudi's briefing at length: Baghdad had no advance notice of the shelling of PMF headquarters, the Foreign Ministry has been tasked with a UN Security Council memorandum, and the state is proceeding with its monopoly on force on a timetable ending in September. He also said the prime minister has again been invited to Saudi Arabia with no date set, matched by press reports the same afternoon that no date is set for the rescheduled visit. Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) and iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) extracted only the UN memorandum line; no faction voice in the window contests the September deadline or the Saudi invitation.

Still in the militia space, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya set its own price on the same weapons file. Ali al-Fatlawi said on the movement's official FAA channel that it had not received its entitlement inside the Reconstruction and Development Coalition despite holding more deputies than blocs that did, and that forced to choose between a ministry and sovereignty — which he glossed as the weapons — it chooses sovereignty, grounding the refusal in the marjaiya's guidance. He added the movement does not seek to drag Iraq into wars with neighbouring states. That sits against al-Aboudi's account the same afternoon of a continuing dialogue, under Prime Minister Ali al-Zaydi's direct supervision, to restrict weapons to the state.

On parliament, the Huquq bloc's drive acquired a text. Al-Ittijah TV reported that Saoud al-Saadi, deputy head of the bloc, has completed a draft law to prosecute states that supported terrorism in Iraq — Saudi Arabia foremost among them — and begun collecting signatures to place it on the agenda under Article 60/First. The channel published a scanned letter to the Speaker signed by al-Saadi whose visible date reads 8 August 2023, which does not match the announcement and which the desk cannot resolve from the supplied material; no Saudi response and no Iraqi government position appear in it either.

On the security file, the PMF Authority disowned the offices the Interior Ministry announced closing. Watan TV carried its statement that the 71 offices, whose operators claimed PMF affiliation, have no connection to the Authority, and that the closures were executed by its own General Directorate for Security and Discipline under the commander-in-chief's standing weapons-registration committee — an account that diverges from the ministry's on the same closures. Ten minutes earlier the same channel reported Falih al-Fayyadh chairing a meeting of PMF leaders whose published takeaway was compliance with the commander-in-chief's directives. Press reports put the closures alongside 6 million firearms registered.