Prime Minister Ali al‑Zaidi has taken decisive action against nine senior security officials after a committee uncovered evidence of an oil smuggling network operating in the Jurf al‑Nasr area of Babil province. The investigation revealed illegal oil refineries and manipulation of pipelines linked to the Iran‑backed Kataib Hezbollah group.
During an emergency security meeting, al‑Zaidi reviewed the committee’s findings and ordered that all individuals accused of involvement in the smuggling operation be referred to the judiciary. He also dismissed nine officials, including security and intelligence officers in Babil, an Interior Ministry commander, the director of the Oil Pipelines Company, and the police chief of the province.
Military spokesperson Sabah al‑Numan confirmed that the prime minister’s decision was based on the investigation’s evidence. “In light of the investigation’s findings, the prime minister ordered that all individuals accused of involvement in oil smuggling operations be referred to the judiciary,” al‑Numan said.
Kataib Hezbollah, a heavily armed faction aligned with Iran, has recently issued threats against the government and accused al‑Zaidi of corruption. Senior Iraqi politicians have indicated that the prime minister is prepared to confront groups that refuse to disarm.
According to Al Jazeera’s Peter Smith, previous Iraqi governments had avoided addressing the alleged smuggling network, which was estimated to be worth up to $30 million monthly. “This area had effectively been run as a state within a state until now,” Smith reported. “But that seems to have changed, with Prime Minister Ali al‑Zaidi saying that no inch of Iraq will be allowed to have oil smuggling operations like this.”
Satellite images and intelligence documents released by the Iraqi News Agency show crude oil and derivatives being siphoned from two strategic pipelines south of Baghdad. The operation, described as a “state within a state,” involved the theft and black‑market sale of oil worth tens of millions of dollars each month.
Akeel Abbas, a senior fellow at the Iraq Initiative within the Atlantic Council, noted that oil smuggling by armed groups is common in Iraq, driven by commercial gains. He added that the latest crackdown is part of a broader effort to disarm militias and combat corruption.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Editorial note: This is an original news report prepared from the attributed source material with AI assistance. It is not a reproduction or translation of the original article.
