2026-09-21T11:53:48+00:00

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Shafaq News- Saladin

Iraq’s Interior Ministry is moving ahead with
plans to assume responsibility for internal security across the country’s
provinces, with Saladin expected to make the transition within weeks or months,
Senior Deputy Interior Minister Hussein al-Awadi said on Monday.

After ISIS seized large parts of Iraq in 2014,
army units and other military formations took on expanded security roles in
cities and districts across several provinces. Baghdad has since pursued a
gradual transfer of day-to-day security responsibilities to the Interior
Ministry and local police, allowing army units to return to their primary
military duties.

The Interior Ministry has begun assuming
responsibility for security in a number of provinces, with logistical
preparations underway to complete the transfer elsewhere, including in
al-Anbar, Nineveh, and Baghdad, as part of a plan to finish handing over city
security duties nationwide by 2026.

“The ministry is determined to strengthen
security across all provinces without giving a fixed date for individual
transfers,” Al-Awadi told reporters during a visit to Saladin province, adding that
the ministry had shifted “from confronting terrorism to confronting crime.”

Weapons

Al-Awadi said the ministry had so far registered
about six million weapons as part of the government’s drive to regulate
firearms and restrict their possession to legally authorized state
institutions, with the process continuing in the coming months.

Read more: Iraq factions resist disarmament as coalition exit nears

Drugs and Border Crossings

On narcotics, Al-Awadi said the General
Directorate for Narcotics Control had carried out operations beyond Iraq’s
borders and at sea, including in Saudi Arabia “using advanced tracking
equipment,” and a further significant operation would take place within days.

Al-Awadi said some border crossings had been
fitted with modern equipment, and the remaining crossings would be equipped in
the coming weeks.

Read more: The Smuggler’s Almanac: Iraq’s war against narco-innovation