Difficult mission: Iraqi efforts to confront uncontrolled weapons and tribal conflicts

Mohamed Shaat

Tribal conflicts in Iraq are common and threaten social security and peace, especially in southern Iraq, where unbridled weapons prevail and tribal customs prevail, with fears of the continuation of this phenomenon, which began to spread after 2003 in light of the growing political and tribal problems.

Confrontation plans

The Iraqi security services are seeking to develop extensive plans and implement them on the ground, the latest of which was announced by Sumer Operations Commander Lieutenant General Saad Harbiye, “who confirmed that Minister of Interior Abdul Amir Al-Shammari had developed a security plan in Dhi Qar Governorate, southern Iraq, during his meeting with the Sumer Operations Command, and intelligence committees were formed to follow up on the plan,” according to the Iraq News Agency (INA).

According to the statements reported by INA, the current plan includes the arrest of every person who carried weapons in the tribal conflicts that occurred recently in the Al-Nasr and Al-Islah districts, following up on uncontrolled weapons in some areas, and preparing to launch a major campaign against drug dealers, whether drug users or dealers.

In recent years, the security services have succeeded in confronting hundreds of incidents of tribal conflicts. According to the Directorate of Tribal Affairs in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, the directorate was able to resolve more than 2,400 tribal conflicts during the year 2022 through the opinion committee following the formation of opinion committees in all governorates of Iraq to work on intervening and resolving tribal conflicts in accordance with the known tribal methods.

Difficult mission

Iraqi researcher Dr. Anmar al-Droubi said in exclusive statements to the Reference that after the 2003 US occupation, Iraq undoubtedly witnessed an exacerbation of tribal conflicts in all of the central and southern governorates, with the exception of the governorates of the Kurdistan Region, which had a kind of security stability, especially since these tribal conflicts began to evolve into acts of violence, which negatively affected the security situation in the country in general.

He explained that although the Iraqi government put in place plans and measures to address this security breach due to the exacerbation of tribal conflicts, it harnessed all its security efforts by deploying thousands of soldiers and policemen in the southern governorates, particularly Basra Governorate, and the interior and defense ministries tried to disarm the tribes that had seized large caches of light and heavy weapons from the former Iraqi army during the chaos that followed the US-led invasion in 2003.

At the same time, Droubi believes that despite these efforts, these forces have been subjected to great pressure from the tribal leaders, especially since most of the tribal leaders in southern Iraq have connections with politicians and influential people in the Iraqi state and political decision-makers.

He added that, based on the above, Iraq needs more security forces to control these tribal conflicts, especially in rural areas, and to control outlawed tribes in the south, although it is a difficult task because of the great overlap between the security forces and Iraqi tribes.