Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has dismissed nine senior security officials in response to an alleged oil smuggling operation in the Jurf al-Nasr area. This location serves as a stronghold for the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group. The dismissals come after an emergency security meeting chaired by the prime minister to review the findings of a special committee tasked with investigating smuggling activities in Babil province. Military spokesperson Sabah al-Numan confirmed these developments to the Iraqi News Agency.
The investigation uncovered evidence of illegal oil refineries and signs of manipulation linked to the smuggling activities. Based on these findings, the prime minister ordered that all individuals accused of involvement in the operations be referred to the judiciary. The group of dismissed officials includes security and intelligence officers based in Babil province, a commander from the Interior Ministry, and the director of the Oil Pipelines Company at the Ministry of Oil. The police chief of Babil province was also among those removed from their positions.
Kataib Hezbollah is an Iran-aligned paramilitary faction and one of the most heavily armed groups in Iraq. Recently, the group issued several sharp statements against the prime minister, threatening his government and accusing him of corruption. Senior Iraqi politicians previously told the AFP news agency that al-Zaidi had repeatedly expressed his readiness to confront groups that refuse to disarm their forces.
Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Smith, reporting from Baghdad, noted that previous Iraqi governments had been cautious about addressing the alleged oil smuggling network, which was estimated to be worth up to $30 million monthly. Smith described the area as having been run as a state within a state until now. However, he observed that the situation appears to have changed, with the prime minister stating that no part of Iraq will allow such smuggling operations to continue.
Smith also cited a leaked intelligence report indicating that two strategic oil pipelines running through the south of the country, just south of Baghdad, had been tapped. According to the report, oil was being siphoned off, stolen, and sold on the black market in an operation generating tens of millions of dollars every month. On Wednesday, the Iraqi News Agency reported that intelligence documents containing satellite images showed crude oil and oil derivatives smuggling operations carried out by an armed faction in Jurf al-Nasr. The report accused an unnamed group of tapping into a pipeline in that area. Al-Numan stated that the investigating committee confirmed the accuracy of this information.
Akeel Abbas, a senior non-resident fellow at the Iraq Initiative within the Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera that oil smuggling by various political factions and armed groups is common in Iraq. He explained that this is often driven by commercial gains rather than political or strategic objectives. Abbas suggested that the latest crackdown is more closely related to the issue of militia disarmament than just financial corruption.
Abbas noted that the prime minister cleverly decided to frame the action as an anti-corruption measure. He pointed to a report leaked by the government a few days prior regarding the operation as evidence of this framing. According to Abbas, the prime minister aims to cut off the financial lifeline of a particular group that has been resistant to the government's militia disarmament initiatives.
