{"id":138757,"date":"2026-05-31T12:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/138757\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:23:12","slug":"are-iranian-backed-militias-in-iraq-really-ready-to-hand-over-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/138757\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Iranian-backed militias in Iraq really ready to hand over weapons?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kataib Hezbollah spokesperson said he \u201cpraised what he described as a decision by \u2018[armed] brothers not involved in the Islamic Resistance [of Iraq]\u2019 to end their armed activities.”<\/p>\n

Pressure is growing on the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq to hand over weapons to state authorities, or at least pretend to put their guns under state \u201ccontrol.”<\/p>\n

Kataib Hezbollah<\/a> is the latest group to comment on what might come next. Kataib Hezbollah is a terrorist group that killed three Americans in Jordan in 2025 and has carried out attacks on the US, Israel, and other countries in the region.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the US killed Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as he drove alongside IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Kataib Hezbollah was also behind the kidnappings of researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov and US journalist Shelly Kittelson.<\/p>\n

\"Fighters<\/p>\n

Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on December 4, 2023. (credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Will the group really hand over its large supply of guns, missiles, drones, and other weapons?<\/p>\n

Rudaw media in the Kurdistan Region<\/a> of northern Iraq noted that Kataib Hezbollah<\/a> \u201con Saturday welcomed efforts by armed factions to surrender their weapons to the state, offering to assume responsibility of specialized military equipment and even pay for them, as Baghdad continues negotiations aimed at bringing weapons under state control.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, who Rudaw said is a spokesperson and senior security official of the armed group, \u201cpraised what he described as a decision by \u2018[armed] brothers not involved in the Islamic Resistance [of Iraq]\u2019 to end their armed activities and hand over their weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kataib Hezbollah spokesperson said the group could \u201cconfine weapons to the hands of the state and enhance security, stability, and civil peace.\u201d The group says that the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) command could oversee the weapons and their transfer. The PMF is a paramilitary group. Its members get paid by the state. Kataib Hezbollah has several brigades in the PMF. As such, this would mean turning over weapons to itself. Because it is ostensibly already controlled by the PMF. Yet it carries out attacks throughout the region.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi<\/a> has said he has continued indirect talks with several Iran-aligned armed groups. Rudaw noted that the Shiite Coordination Framework told Rudaw earlier this week that indirect \u201cdiscussions are underway with three to four factions operating outside the PMF structure, with a final agreement expected after the Eid al-Adha holiday, which was celebrated between Wednesday and Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

What next?<\/p>\n

Kataib Hezbollah might claim to hand over, or do a kind of symbolic handover of \u201ccertain specialized weapons for which the state apparatus lacks specialists, such as drones, loitering munitions [suicide drones], cruise missiles, anti-armor weapons, and others.\u201d Bizarrely, the group also said it might buy the weapons, meaning it would buy back its own weapons. This seems contrived to kind of create a form of smoke and mirrors or the equivalent of a shell company to move the weapons back and forth, laundering them.<\/p>\n

Rudaw adds, \u201cthe proposal also included overseeing the inventory, transportation, and storage of surrendered weapons, as well as support for \u2018the families of the martyrs and the wounded of those groups, as well as the mujahideen whose services will no longer be required.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Some other groups in Iraq have rejected handing over weapons. It remains to be seen if they will actually do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kataib Hezbollah spokesperson said he \u201cpraised what he described as a decision by \u2018[armed] brothers not involved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[12230,1711,100,94,4758,363,2078,45803],"class_list":["post-138757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-armed-group","tag-baghdad","tag-hezbollah","tag-iraq","tag-islamic-resistance","tag-kataib-hezbollah","tag-northern-iraq","tag-paramilitary-group"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116669173299882391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}