Sunday, 23 August 2026

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) carried Hadba Coalition spokesman Abbas al-Shabaki this evening saying the Prime Minister confirmed that PMF Authority chairman Falih al-Fayyadh had been warned of an attack on PMF headquarters before it happened while Brigade 30 in the Nineveh Plain was not, and that Fayyadh's dismissal is "inevitable and unavoidable." The hardest line is a guest's, not an AAH figure's, and the warning, the attack and the Prime Minister's confirmation rest on the channel's own items, with no answer from Fayyadh, the PMF authority or the prime minister's office, as today's militia digest sets out. The PMF authority said on Sunday morning that its 63rd Brigade repelled an ISIS assault on a commando-battalion position in Tuz Khurmatu, an attack Kurdistan24 places as the disarmament debate intensifies. The president's carve-out exempting the Peshmerga from the weapons process and the office of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's denial that he agreed to relinquish the Interior Ministry, together with the intelligence seizure of drones and munitions in Maysan, each turn on who ends up commanding Iraq's armed formations.

On the economy, the Central Bank of Iraq said Iraq has lost more than $30 billion in reserves amid regional tensions — the first figure Baghdad has attached to the cost of the shipping squeeze. Amidi said Iraq is exploring "flexibility" with Iran on Hormuz oil exportation, the same file on which Tehran granted passage to some Iraqi tankers, and Iraqi and Turkish delegations are meeting to finalize the Development Road agreement, a land route that would move goods outside the strait.

Parliament is to take up a strategic pact with France, days after Baghdad reaffirmed its readiness for what it called the "historic" withdrawal of the US-led coalition — a bilateral treaty with Paris is the first named replacement arrangement to reach the chamber. The Coordination Framework, which added Shibl al-Zaydi to its leadership, is bargaining over the security ministries as government formation proceeds.

In Kirkuk, a parliamentary push to freeze the provincial councils has raised concerns in a province where the council carries the local balance between its communities, and a court in the same city fined a Kurdish farmer over an alleged insult to a soldier. Iraq's environmental watchdog identified 500 sources of pollution along the Tigris, Rudaw reported.

Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) escalated its case against PMF Authority chairman Falih al-Fayyadh this evening, moving from dereliction to a claim about advance knowledge. In three items posted within seven minutes, it carried an unnamed "Fayhan" demanding to know why PMF units were not informed, Sadiqoun general assembly member Amal al-Shuwaili saying Fayyadh's failure to appear in parliament could lead to his questioning, and Hadba Coalition spokesman Abbas al-Shabaki saying the Prime Minister confirmed Fayyadh had been warned of an attack on PMF headquarters before it happened while Brigade 30 in the Nineveh Plain was not, and that his dismissal is "inevitable and unavoidable." The hardest line is a guest's, not an AAH figure's, and the attack, the warning and the Prime Minister's confirmation rest on these items alone. Earlier the same afternoon the channel aired analyst Muhammad al-Husseini saying Fayyadh's absence from parliament showed he held information on a "Saudi-American aggression" against PMF facilities and did not report it — while also saying periodic change in security-service leaderships is not political targeting.

The alleged strike at the centre of that case remains undescribed: no site, no date, no damage figure, and no faction has claimed retaliation for it. No channel outside Al-Ahad TV addressed Fayyadh, Brigade 30 or the attack today, and neither Fayyadh nor the PMF authority has answered any of it. Nor has any militia claimed responsibility for an attack on PMF headquarters.

On the weapons file, 964media reported this afternoon that Prime Minister Sudani met Nujaba as a three-man committee began work on the file. The report gives no committee mandate and no membership, and states no Nujaba position. Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) posted on other subjects in the same hours and said nothing about the meeting.

The PMF law moved three ways at once, and the three do not agree. Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) posted this evening that MP Diaa al-Zaidi said the law is close to reaching parliament for a vote; iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) carried Shaghati saying it will be placed on the agenda soon and Ishraqat Kanun calling on parliament to settle it away from political disputes. The same channel then reported that parliament intends to hold three new sessions with the PMF law absent, publishing the agendas for sessions 12 and 13 on 24 and 26 August — first readings on narcotics, arbitration, solar energy, a maritime authority, mineral investment and customs. No PMF item appears on either agenda. Half an hour after the KH item, Al-Ahad TV posted the legal committee's approval of a salary-scale amendment signed by Sadiqoun bloc head Adi Awad, its own bloc's vehicle rather than the PMF bill.

Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) relayed a statement this evening from MP Saad al-Awadi calling Saudi intervention in Iraqi affairs "blatant" and demanding the Foreign Ministry respond directly. The post names no Saudi action he is answering, and no other tracked channel carried it. It arrived the same day Al-Ahad TV's guest analyst was calling the alleged strike on PMF headquarters Saudi-American.

In the south, Al-Ahad TV ran two segments of its programme 180 from Basra alleging that the previous government granted the investment licence for the presidential palaces after it had become a caretaker administration. Its correspondent set the provincial council against the governor within the same broadcast: the council said it did not know of the conversion to investment, while the governor said the investment does not cover the green spaces. The channel attributed the illegality judgement to "the people of the province," not to itself.

Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official) carried MP Miqdad al-Khafaji saying the resistance's weapons are important during the critical phase the country is passing through. The statement names no target, no timetable and no operation, and no other channel amplified it. The same channel aired Maysan MP Jawad Rahim al-Saadi saying several urgent files had been discussed, electricity foremost, without naming a ministry or a measure.