The Militia Digest
PMF military-media director Muhannad al-Aqabi said faction weapons would not be surrendered but reorganized under federal supervision to prevent disorder or abuse. He also rejected any attack on Erbil or another Iraqi province. Riyadh al-Tamimi (Sadiqoun — MP) told Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) that his bloc supported containing and regulating weapons, without addressing surrender. Iram News separately cited an Iraqi political source saying most heavy weapons, missiles and drones remained with factions, with a substantial portion possibly moving to PMF warehouses and returning to combat if the United States attacked Iran. Al-Aqabi has thus made the PMF distinction explicit: regulation without surrender, while the government committee still has no fixed deadline.
On 20 September, Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official), Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official), Al-Ahad and iNEWS (KSS — affiliated) described explosions or drone action near Erbil airport and a U.S. base. Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated), Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) and Unit 10,000 (KH — affiliated) instead relayed the Kurdistan Region counterterrorism account that two blasts came from military training and security activity. Kurdistan24 cited a security source saying the explosion came from detonating explosive remnants and was not an attack. On 21 September, Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) captioned footage as an attack on U.S. bases, but the video showed smoke without establishing the site, cause or recording time.
Ahmad Adnan (AAH — Sadiqoun member) said his bloc had enough MPs to question PMF chairman Faleh al-Fayyad after his absence from parliament. He alleged that Fayyad sent delegations and intermediaries to Sadiqoun seeking to avoid the questioning. Victory Coalition spokesman Salam al-Zubaidi separately said that Fayyad’s absence was political and alleged that political forces retained him for electoral votes and to exploit the PMF. Adnan also called for scrutiny of reports alleging transfers of Fayyad’s money from Qatar to Turkey.
Al-Ahad TV announced that Sadiqoun would proceed with questioning the oil minister over the fuel crisis. A previous request had more than 60 lawmakers’ signatures before proceedings were put on hold, and parliament has not scheduled the questioning. The oil minister told lawmakers Iraq needed at least 5 million litres of imported petrol a day, while stocks had fallen from around 350 million litres to about 107 million. Parliamentary Security and Defence Committee head Mahdi Taqi al-Amirli alleged through iNEWS and Al-Ghadeer that SOMO manufactured the shortage and blocked solutions except through Saudi and Emirati companies. Al-Ghadeer also carried his allegation that the arrangement sought to inflame discord and push demonstrations into the streets.
From late 20 September into 21 September, Sabereen News (KH — affiliated), Unit 10,000, Al-Ahad and Al-Ghadeer reported that PMF forces stopped an ISIS infiltration at Lake Tharthar, east of Anbar. Sabereen and Unit 10,000 said the infiltrators intended to attack a PMF position and fled after losses, while forces seized a boat, weapons and food. Al-Nujaba later attached an image of armed men in a motorboat beneath a “7th River Brigade” banner, but the image did not establish its date, location or operational role.
Faction outlets relayed Iranian warnings, readiness claims and victory language. Al-Ittijah carried an Iranian warning of a decisive response encompassing U.S. interests in the region, while Al-Ghadeer carried Iran’s claim of control over the Strait of Hormuz. Political analyst Mehdi Azizil told Al-Ahad that Iran’s target bank included regional oil companies, while Al-Janoub TV (Harakat al-Jihad wal-Bina — official) and Shabab al-Islam (Ashab al-Kahf — owned/non-official) carried readiness or victory wording. Separately, iNEWS relayed Qatari mediation to resume Tehran-Washington talks, and Al-Nujaba carried Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s stated openness to talks. Since 14 September, 12 of 33 watched channels across five networks have surged on Tehran. These posts made no Iraqi operational commitment or independent faction endorsement of talks.