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Shafaq News
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Iraq uncovers source of drone attacks, vows legal action
Shafaq News – Baghdad A high-level Iraqi investigation has identified the source and perpetrators of a series of suicide drone attacks that targeted key military radar sites across the country, confirming that the drones were launched from within Iraq using foreign-made equipment. According to a statement issued Friday by Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the findings came after a directive from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to form a committee of senior officers and technical experts to examine the recent attacks on multiple air defense systems. The investigation revealed that "the origin of the drones used in the attacks was identified," and that they had been 'equipped with warheads of varying weights and manufactured outside Iraq.' However, their launch points were located within Iraqi territory, the statement said. 'All the suicide drones used in the attacks were of the same type, clearly indicating a single executing party,' the spokesman added. Security and intelligence services also analyzed the drones' control and communication systems, allowing them to gather detailed technical data and confirm the operational methods behind the assaults. The statement noted that 'the entities involved in planning and carrying out these hostile operations were identified,' though no specific group or actor was named. 'These cowardly acts of aggression represent a blatant violation of national sovereignty,' the statement read. 'No party, whether domestic or foreign, will be permitted to undermine Iraq's security and stability.' The spokesman stressed that legal measures will be taken against all those involved, and that the case will be referred to the Iraqi judiciary. 'The security and military leadership affirms that it will not tolerate any threat to the safety and security of the Iraqi Armed Forces or the assets of the Iraqi state,' he said. The wave of drone attacks began in June and included strikes on radar stations located at several military bases and airports, including facilities used to monitor Iraqi airspace. Some attacks also targeted oil infrastructure in the Kurdistan Region.
Al-Ahram Weekly
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Why Iraq remains a bystander in Iran's conflict?
The first thing many Middle East watchers thought when they heard the news of Israel's military strikes on Iran on 12 June was that it might finally be time for Tehran's Iraqi Shia allies to stand with their main backer. However, days later nothing of the sort had happened, and Iraq's Shia leaders have maintained their usual rhetoric of condemning the Israeli 'aggression' and blasting its violation of Iran's sovereignty. Noise made by the hardliner bosses of the Shia militias, part of the Iran-backed 'Axis of Resistance,' about retaliation went by without actually producing any action. With its western flank open to wave after wave of Israeli missile and drone strikes through Iraqi airspace, Iran has been left entirely alone to deter the Israeli aggression and threats from US President Donald Trump. The surprising lack of empathy prompted Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian to urge Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani to block Israel from using Iraqi airspace to launch attacks on the Islamic Republic. 'We urge the Iraqi government to exercise greater vigilance and protect its borders and airspace so that Iraqi territory is not misused against the Islamic Republic of Iran,' Pezeshkian told Al-Sudani during a telephone call. From the onset of the Israeli operations in Iran it was clear that this conflict will be a 'watershed moment' for Iranian-Iraqi relations, particularly in testing the strengths and weaknesses of the alliance between Iran and the Iraqi Shias. Since the fall of the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in the US-led invasion in 2003, many of the Shia leaders who came to power as a result were groomed by Iran and perceived as strategic assets for Tehran. When leaders of the ruling Shia alliance in Iraq met to respond to Pezeshkian, they issued a statement condemning Israel's 'violations of Iraqi airspace and its use to launch attacks on neighbouring countries.' But their message was loud and clear – they had no intention of being actively involved in the confrontation, posing a serious problem for Iran's defence efforts. Whether they are unable or unwilling to support Iran has been left an open question, as has the question of whether this was their best option to prioritise their own political survival and the needs of the Iraqi Shia population. Technically, supporting Iran would be a major challenge for the Iraqi Armed Forces. Iraq lacks the resources to defend its airspace and back Iran against the incursion of Israel's war- planes, drones, and missiles over its territory. Iraq's air defences have proven ineffective in countering threats of air and missile attacks, and the country is powerless when it comes to facing the ever-changing threats in the regional landscape. The bulk of Iraq's air defences consist of old Soviet systems and a number of European built surface-to-air missile systems, such as the French Roland, all from the Saddam era. Like any country that faces multiple threats, Iraq needs to bolster its military with advanced missiles and effective air defence systems. But the United States, which still maintains a military presence in Iraq, has reportedly torpedoed Baghdad's attempts to acquire such defensive weapons. Meanwhile, anxiety is rising in Iraq about the Israeli strikes in Iran and the possibility of being caught in the middle of a broader conflict that could involve pro-Iran militias and US troops in Iraq. As for Iran, the situation remains dire as the country is forced to rely primarily on its own less-effective military power to face more-advanced Israeli weapons coming in undeterred to kill its military leaders and scientists and destroy its infrastructure. Iraq has a 1,200 km border with Iran, and for most of their statehood period it has been ruled by unfriendly governments perceived by Tehran as a major security threat. Iran's security fears crystallised when Saddam ordered a wide-scale incursion into Iran in 1980, seeking to counter the revolutionary government of Ayatollah Khomeini that came to power in 1979. The eight-year war that followed was a defining period in the country's modern history. Iran learned many lessons from the war, including the need to be self-reliant in order to face up to prolonged diplomatic isolation. After the war, the Islamic Republic spared no efforts in building up its military power and putting in place a strategy to deter its foes. This included efforts to upgrade its nuclear infrastructure to make it capable of enriching uranium. The 1980-1988 war remains a huge story in Iran. Murals commemorating its martyrs still decorate street junctions in Tehran and other Iranian cities, along with pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic and Iran's wartime leader. Two years after the end of the war when the Iraqi Army invaded neighbouring Kuwait, Iranian fears were revived, and officials used the dangers to consolidate the Islamic Republic and mobilise the population in the face of Iraqi challenges. Iran's sense of foreboding escalated after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which helped to crystallise Iran's regional views as well as define the country's security policy and make it more proactive. With the Saddam regime's belligerency in mind, one of Iran's main worries is the possibility of a hostile regime in Iraq that could be incorporated into an anti-Iranian regional alliance, upsetting the post-invasion balance of power that Iran saw as operating in its favour. Ostensibly, the US-led invasion of Iraq put Iran in a favourable position in the light of the destruction of the Iraqi military by the US Occupation Authority and the empowerment of Shia opposition groups in Iraq that had been prepared and equipped by Iran to fight Saddam. Gradually, Tehran managed to become hugely influential in Iraq, including by creating political, economic, and cultural assets as well as a vast pro-Iranian para-military force, or militias, that it has used to maximise its influence. For the past 22 years, Iran has sought to cement its alliance with the Iraqi Shias, reasoning that a friendly regime in Baghdad would make for a stronger Islamic Republic and a regional power to reckon with. The list of actions that demonstrate Iran's political standing and security influence in post-Saddam Iraq is long and far-reaching. Iran has established itself as the key external powerbroker in Iraq using its longstanding ties with key Iraqi Shia politicians, parties, and armed groups to do so as well as its soft power in the religious and economic domains. Iran has also used its Shia proxies in Iraq to gain an alternative source of influence and the means to secure itself as a key regional power, giving it a geopolitical edge over its Arab neighbours. Iran is one of Iraq's main trading partners, and its annual exports to Iraq amount to about $10 billion or some 25 per cent of Iraq's imports. Through intricate networks within Iraq's financial system, Iran manages to siphon off billions of dollars to cover its shortages of hard currency caused by international sanctions. Clearly, Iran has succeeded in building client-type relationships with Iraq's Shia leaders that Tehran has hoped to use to build its regional power by expanding both its hard power (military and economic) and its soft power (diplomacy and cultural influence). Yet, when it comes to Iraq's standing during the current conflict, there have been strikingly few signs that its friends, allies, and proxies have come to its rescue in its time of need. On the surface, Iraq's caution about showing its support to Iran is linked to its Shia leadership treading carefully amid the escalating Iran-Israel confrontation and fears of a backlash. But a closer look at Iraq's decision to stay out of the military confrontation shows not only a complex policy issue that could be a potential security threat to Iraq, but also a feeling of national self-scrutiny that Iraq's Shia leaders should take into consideration. As the US joins the war against Iran, a deep national dilemma that has long been expected to surface over the Iraqi Shias' bonds with Iran has emerged, probing the limited options Iraq has to respond directly to the conflict. Viewed from this larger national perspective, the war between Iran and Israel is a significant test of Iraqi nationalism, revealing both the challenges of unifying Iraqis from multiple sectarian and ethnic backgrounds and the potentially divisive aspects of competing visions of national identity. While the conflict has fostered a sense of national accord between the Iraqi Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds in particular, it has also highlighted historical and ideological fault lines within Iraqi society, including relations with Iran. The conflict has been a crucial test of Iraq's Shia leadership, involving not only its fear of undermining their community's interests but also its judgement of the country's broader national interests, which require sparing Iraq from the scourge of another war. Some of the militias that have occasionally struck bases housing US troops in Iraq have continued to make threats, but they have not actually carried them out. It is believed that the militias' focus has shifted to self-protective tactics to avoid harm from Israel and the United States as long as they are not facing an existential threat. By all accounts, the Iran-Israel war has placed the Iraqi Shias at a crossroads and one that could be detrimental not only to their rule and influence but also to their future if Iran's regional power is severely degraded. Whatever happens, it is doubtful that Iran will come out unscathed from the war, and as far as its networks of regional allies and in particular Iraqi Shias are concerned, these will certainly face an uncertain future. The increased political influence of Shia Muslims in post-Saddam Iraq, or what has been called the 'Shia rise' championed by Iran, will be challenged, especially after the setbacks for Iran and its allies in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel might have launched its war to destroy Iran's capacity to make nuclear weapons, targeting missile depots and military and political leaders and eliminating its regional influence, but by reversing the Shia revival, the Middle East will face another drastic geopolitical game-changer. This will be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new Middle East, a chaotic and divided region plunged into sectarian wars. The amended goals of the war endorsed by the Israeli Cabinet and published this week have shown that damaging the 'Shia Axis' is at the top of Israel's list. * A version of this article appears in print in the 26 June, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Iraqi News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Iraqi News
Baghdad forms committee to investigate drone attacks on military sites
Baghdad ( – The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, authorized the establishment of a commission to investigate the drone attacks that targeted military sites on Tuesday. The spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Sabah Al-Numan, mentioned in a statement that a group of small suicide drones hit multiple Iraqi military sites between 2:15 a.m. and 3:45 a.m. on Tuesday. This attack caused severely damaged the radar systems at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, and the Imam Ali base in Dhi Qar province, southern Iraq, with no casualties reported, according to Al-Numan. The official explained that Iraqi forces managed to repel all subsequent attempted attacks on four military sites in different places, as well as intercept and shoot down drones that attempted to strike these targets. All of the targeted locations are military sites associated with Iraqi security forces and are overseen and managed by Iraqi officers and troops, according to Al-Numan. A high-level technical and intelligence committee, comprised of officials from different Iraqi security agencies, will investigate the circumstances of this assault and identify the responsible parties. Al-Numan added that these crimes would not go unpunished and that Iraq's military forces would continue to serve as an unbreakable shield to defend the Iraqi people, land, and sovereignty.
Shafaq News
05-02-2025
- Business
- Shafaq News
PM Al-Sudani, NATO SG discuss cooperation and security
Shafaq News/ On Wednesday, Iraq's Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his accompanying delegation. According to a statement from the PM's media office, the meeting focused on strengthening cooperation between Iraq and NATO in areas related to capacity building and support for the Iraqi Armed Forces, particularly in advisory roles and training. The meeting also addressed regional developments, including the status of ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as updates on the situation in Syria. The statement added, 'The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of continued engagement to strengthen cooperation with NATO within its advisory mission in Iraq.' Regarding NATO's advisory mission, the PM noted Iraq's interest and its cooperation in areas like training, planning, and exchanging expertise. He also discussed Iraq's ambitious defense industry program, supported by the government, and expressed the country's desire to collaborate with NATO in the field of military industries, particularly in defense equipment, to enhance security and deter potential aggression. 'He highlighted Iraq's ongoing political stability, economic growth, and recovery, which enable the country to play a leading role in the region. He also reaffirmed Iraq's commitment to maintaining a balanced position despite challenges while safeguarding its national interests and supporting regional stability efforts,' the PM's media office pointed out. For his part, NATO's Secretary General praised Iraq's progress and extended an official invitation to Al-Sudani to attend an upcoming NATO summit in Brussels and deliver a speech on Iraq's behalf. The statement proceeded, 'He also commended the Iraqi government's efforts in achieving security, stability, and growth, reaffirming NATO's commitment to strengthening its partnership with Iraq, particularly in the defense industry sector.'
