WIRE
KURDISTAN24Peshmerga Join High-Level Military Meeting in Amman4HTHE NEW REGIONIraqi PM directs formation of draft law for restricting weapons6HKURDISTAN24Iraqi PM Orders Draft Law to Place Weapons Under State Control6HSHAFAQJordan hosts Iraq, Syria, and Kurdistan Region over border security7HSHAFAQ100% leave salary proposal raises fiscal concerns in Iraq7HSHAFAQUS backs Iraqi disarmament push after Qaani intervention8HRUDAWJordan hosts Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria military chiefs for security talks amid CENTCOM participation8HTHE NEW REGIONMPs call on Iraqi government to address Kurdistan’s gasoline crisis8HAPTurkey’s Kurdish region greets a conditional PKK pardon with relief, joy and doubt8HRUDAWIED attack in Kirkuk leaves three Iraqi soldiers wounded9HSHAFAQAl-Zaidi seeks more South Korean investment in Iraq9HKURDISTAN24Ali al-Zaidi: Iraq Continues Efforts to Root Out Corruption9HSHAFAQCF leaders convene with PM Al-Zaidi after Qaani talks9HSHAFAQNon-oil weakness clouds Iraq economy despite 10% money growth10HIRAQI NEWSIraq auto sales drop 28.6% in H1 2026 amid broad economic slowdown10HRUDAWHow war, currency pressures are squeezing households in Iraq, Kurdistan Region10H
Iraq Monitorعين على العراقPrimary-source intelligence
THE BRIEFING · A PERMANENT EDITION

Tuesday, 11 August 2026

EVENING EDITION

The Daily Digest

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) said Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi gave three hours' warning of the strike on Popular Mobilization Forces headquarters to PMF Commission chairman Falih al-Fayyad and Coordination Framework leaders, and that the units at the Basra sites were never told — an accusation aimed at the leadership of the institution AAH sits inside, over a strike the channel's own programming attributes to the United States and Saudi Arabia. A spokesman for Muqtada al-Sadr made the same charge, saying the PMF leadership failed to notify its bases and calling for an internal probe; no names of those who withheld the alert have been identified, and the militia digest beside this one has the channel-level detail. The blame fight runs into a weapons file Washington and Tehran both touched within a day: Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani's Baghdad talks with Iraqi leaders covered faction weapons and Hormuz, and the United States then backed the Iraqi disarmament push after that intervention. An adviser to the prime minister said Iraq must not be an arena for external conflicts.

Still on the security file, three PMF members were killed in a shooting at a base in Saladin, and Iraqi authorities suspect a drone attack destroyed a tank ammunition stockpile in what Asharq al-Awsat describes as a 'silent battle' with the militias, with no attribution given for the drone.

On the economy, a parliamentary committee put Iraq's reserves at 109 trillion dinars, enough to cover salaries for about ten months after a closed briefing, a clock on the $150 billion Hormuz shutdown cost officials disclosed a day earlier. US crude imports from Iraq fell to zero on EIA figures, auto sales dropped 28.6% in the first half, and non-oil weakness clouds the outlook despite 10% money growth.

Against that ten-month limit, a proposal to pay 100% of salary during leave has raised fresh fiscal concerns, while the parallel rate in Baghdad's al-Kifah market reached 153,250 dinars per 100 dollars, a half-percent rise on the previous observation by the desk's measure.

Also on the security file, Turkey's Kurdish region met the conditional PKK pardon with relief, joy and doubt that Ankara's parliament passed the previous evening — a limited amnesty for fighters whose bases sit in Iraq's northern mountains. Jordan separately hosted Iraq, Syria and the Kurdistan Region for talks on border security.

In the north, MPs called on Baghdad to address Kurdistan's gasoline crisis as the Kurdistan Regional Government argued that equalising oil costs with the rest of Iraq could cut petrol to 450 dinars. Al Jazeera reports the Region suffering as the US-Iran war drags on, and a Kirkuk official invoked the constitution against a freeze of the provincial council.

On the domestic front, a lawmaker blamed corruption for the blockage of Iraqi tanker exports, tying the export crisis to the graft file al-Zaidi says Iraq will continue to root out. Shafaq reports the Coordination Framework weakening with no rival ready to replace it, an assessment of the bloc whose leaders Al-Ahad TV now accuses of sitting on the strike warning.

THINGS TO WATCH
Baghdad names a Hormuz reopening date or a specific salary-funding measuremedium likelihoodhigh impactA parliamentary committee put reserves at 109 trillion dinars covering roughly ten months of salaries while officials price the shutdown at $150 billion, a dated limit the finance authorities will have to speak to.
The federal government responds to Erbil's drone and missile damage compensation reportmedium likelihoodmedium impactA KRG minister says the damage report has been submitted to Baghdad seeking compensation, so a federal acceptance, rejection or figure is the next observable step.
Baghdad issues a fuel measure for Kurdistan or rejects the KRG's 450-dinar petrol claimmedium likelihoodmedium impactMPs have formally pressed the federal government over the Region's gasoline crisis while the KRG has attached a specific price figure to cost equalisation.
First PKK fighters based in Iraq's northern mountains move under Turkey's amnestylow likelihoodhigh impactAnkara's parliament passed a limited amnesty for PKK militants whose bases sit in Iraqi territory, so any surrender or withdrawal there would be visible on the Iraqi side.
An Iraqi attribution for the drone strike on the tank ammunition stockpilelow likelihoodmedium impactAuthorities suspect a drone destroyed the stockpile in what is described as a 'silent battle' with the militias, with no party yet named.

The Militia Digest

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) turned the strike on Popular Mobilization Forces headquarters that its own programming attributes to the United States and Saudi Arabia into an accusation against the PMF's own leadership, saying the warning reached the top and never reached the units. In the early afternoon the channel carried MP Abdullah Hamid al-Khaygani and Sadiqoun political bureau member Hussein al-Shihani saying PMF Commission chairman Falih al-Fayyad knew before midnight but only passed word after the Basra sites were hit. By evening the channel ran roughly an hour of segments asserting that Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi gave three hours' notice and informed al-Fayyad and Coordination Framework leaders, that Basra headquarters were evacuated, and that a parliamentary inquiry has been formed; Khalid Sidu of the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee told it no clear picture exists and no names of those who withheld the alert have been identified. The accusation is AAH-voiced against the head of the institution AAH sits inside, no other tracked channel carried the warning-chain story, and there is no outside coverage of the attack in the collected material.

In the militia space, Al-Ahad TV placed a call for strikes on Saudi Arabia in the same evening block: Alaa al-Haidari of the al-Asas al-Iraqi bloc said he hoped the factions would shell Saudi Arabia and that letting the aggression pass was shameful, while MP Hamid al-Mousawi said the government went to the Security Council to avoid a reaction by the resistance. No Iraqi group claimed responsibility for any action against Saudi Arabia in this window, and the wish is a guest's spoken words on Asaib Ahl al-Haq's channel rather than an AAH statement. The desk counts 16 of 34 watched channels across five networks surging on Saudi Arabia since 5 August, on a baseline still forming.

On the weapons file, channels of three separate factions relayed al-Zaidi's instruction to draft a law confining weapons to the state without a word of comment. Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) carried the fuller account of him receiving the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee and quoting him that unruly weapons are the gravest threat to the state, with Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated) and Al-Ahad TV running near-identical single lines. The one voice that engaged was al-Haidari on Al-Ahad TV, who said everyone supports confining weapons to the state provided the challenges are removed — a condition the relayed text does not contain. Press reports in the same hours said Coordination Framework leaders met al-Zaidi after talks with Qaani and that Washington is backing the disarmament push.

Also on the weapons file, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya's official channel published Ahmad al-Dalfi of the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee announcing that the Popular Mobilization Forces law reaches the committee next week, with a pledge to back every clause protecting fighters, martyrs, the wounded and their families and regulating their employment inside the state security institution. Two legislative tracks touching the same weapons ran in the same hours, and neither channel mentioned the other. The committee scheduling is not corroborated elsewhere in the collected material.

On the domestic front, the Babil dispute over Jurf al-Nasr that began this morning with the council's complaint against the sheikh of the Janabiyin widened on Al-Ahad TV into a second legal step and an attack on people inside the province. The channel reported that the Babylon provincial council has filed a lawsuit against former MP Adnan al-Janabi over his description of the liberation of Jurf al-Nasr as an occupation, carrying Deputy Council Chairman Hamza al-Jubouri rejecting the term outright, and it ran council chairman As'ad al-Musalmawi saying terrorism will not be allowed to return through Jurf al-Nasr. Within seventeen minutes it also published four quote-cards from a press-conference speaker it identifies only as Turki, declaring the security agencies innocent of the Jurf al-Nasr execution allegations and calling those who describe themselves as displaced criminals and terrorists who fought the security forces. The cards accuse unnamed "discordant figures" inside Babil of hosting the Triangle of Death and never mourning AAH's martyrs; the speaker's faction is not established, and no court confirmation of either legal step is in hand.

On the security file, two channels reported an improvised explosive device killing two people in the Dujail area of Salah al-Din within four minutes of each other this afternoon. Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) filed first and Shabab al-Islam (Ashab al-Kahf — owned/non-official) followed, both calling the dead martyrs and the latter marking the toll preliminary. Neither named who planted the device or who the dead were, there is no claim of responsibility from any party, and no outside coverage of the blast appears in the collected material — the second such unclaimed device against the desk's count in a day, after the Kirkuk bombing four channels reported this morning.

THINGS TO WATCH
A named PMF or Coordination Framework response to the al-Fayyad warning accusationmedium likelihoodhigh impactTwo AAH platforms have now accused the PMF Commission chairman by name of sitting on a pre-midnight warning, and no other channel or the Commission itself has answered.
The parliamentary inquiry names who withheld the alertlow likelihoodhigh impactKhalid Sidu of the Security and Defence Committee told Al-Ahad TV that no clear picture exists and no names have been identified, making the first named finding an observable step.
The PMF law arrives at the Security and Defence Committeemedium likelihoodhigh impactAnsar Allah al-Awfiya's channel published al-Dalfi putting the law before the committee next week, a diary date that either arrives or slips.
A faction states a position on the weapons-confinement bill in its own voicemedium likelihoodhigh impactBadr, KSS and AAH channels all relayed al-Zaidi's directive without comment, and the only engagement so far was a guest's conditional on Al-Ahad TV.
A claim of responsibility or official Iraqi attribution for the Dujail IEDlow likelihoodmedium impactTwo militia channels reported two dead within four minutes with no perpetrator named and no outside coverage, so any claim or security-command attribution would be the first.
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The Briefing — Tuesday, 11 August 2026, evening edition · Iraq Monitor