As Iraq positions itself with new leadership after a new prime minister was chosen, the country is also wrestling with various security challenges.
Since the conflict with Iran, which began with US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28, Iraq has suffered about 1,000 attacks by Iranian-backed militias.
These militias are usually part of Iraq’s official paramilitary forces. As such, they are both inside the government and carrying out illegal attacks.
One of the main targets of the attacks was the US embassy in Baghdad. About 800 attacks targeted the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq.
In a bizarre turn of events, Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari said Iraq would acquire systems to counter drone threats but will not provide them to the Kurdistan Region.
For many years, Baghdad has blocked the Kurdistan Region from acquiring air-defense systems. The US has positioned some air defenses in the region.
The Iraqi government has “signed a contract to supply the federal Interior Ministry with advanced anti-drone systems to protect key institutions of the ministry, adding that the Kurdistan Region will not be included in the measure,” Kurdistan Region-based news channel Rudaw Media Network reported. “The move comes amid ongoing regional instability.”
Baghdad has “signed a contract with the Iraqi Military Industrialization Board to provide several advanced anti-drone defense systems,” Shammari told Rudaw, the report said, adding that the Iraqi Council of Ministers had made this decision in March.
Hundreds of attacks in the Kurdistan Region
“Shammari explained that the system is intended ‘to protect vital institutions belonging to the Ministry of Interior’ from potential aerial attacks,” Rudaw reported. “However, he stressed that ‘the system does not include institutions in the Kurdistan Region,’ contradicting earlier remarks by Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, who had indicated the systems would also cover the Region.”
Iranian-backed militias and Iran have carried out hundreds of attacks in the Kurdistan Region, including energy sites, Kurdish Iranian opposition groups, and the US and UAE consulates.
“Shammari’s remarks come amid heightened tensions and a surge in drone and missile attacks by Iran and Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq targeting US interests in the country, including the Kurdistan Region, which they said were carried out in response to US and Israeli strikes,” Rudaw reported.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has said its region has been targeted by 809 drones and missiles since February 28. The attacks have continued in recent weeks, despite the US-Iran ceasefire.
Baghdad has said it is the main address responsible for providing air defenses to the Kurdistan Region. It refuses to supply them, however, creating a catch-22.
The region is also prevented from importing systems on its own. According to the KRG, 20 people were killed in the 800 drone and missile attacks, and 121 were wounded.
Meanwhile, the US has issued a statement about Iraq’s new prime minister.
“The US Mission in Iraq extends its best wishes to Prime Minister-designate Ali Al-Zaydi in his efforts to form a government capable of achieving the aspirations of all Iraqis for a brighter and more peaceful future,” it said.
“We express our solidarity with the Iraqi people in their pursuit of shared goals, including safeguarding Iraq’s sovereignty, enhancing security to combat terrorism, and building a prosperous future that delivers tangible benefits for both Americans and Iraqis.”
Syria is increasingly wary of the threats by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The militias have not only attacked the US in Iraq, as well as the Kurdistan Region, they have also targeted Kuwait and the Gulf states.
“Syria’s permanent envoy to the United Nations on Tuesday called on the Iraqi and Lebanese governments to deploy official state forces along Syrian borders and prevent the spread of militia groups there, amid ongoing regional instability,” Rudaw reported.
Addressing the UN Security Council, Syrian envoy Ibrahim Olabi said: “We also support limiting weapons to the hands of the state in Iraq and call on both brotherly countries, Iraq and Lebanon, to deploy forces in the border areas with Syria and prevent militias from spreading there.”