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Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
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Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the UN Security Council about strikes by Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a "pretext and argument to attack Iraq" and to "expand the war in the region."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that "Israel has the inherent right to self-defense ... and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq."

An umbrella group of Iraqi militias known as the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" has regularly launched drone strikes on targets in Israel in recent months in support of its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Saar said some of the militias are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces — a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups that's technically part of the Iraqi army although it operates in practice largely outside state control — and urged the Iraqi government to "take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks."

Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while "seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people."

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Arab World

Iraq Says Ankara Agrees to Take Back Turkish Citizens Among ISIS Detainees Transferred from Syria 

This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
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Iraq Says Ankara Agrees to Take Back Turkish Citizens Among ISIS Detainees Transferred from Syria 

This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)

Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday Türkiye had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of ISIS detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.

Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed ISIS suspects ‌for nearly a decade.

Baghdad has said ‌it ⁠will try suspects ⁠on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq ⁠was in talks with other countries on ‌the repatriation of ‌their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Türkiye.

In ‌a separate statement to the UN Human ‌Rights Council, Hussein said: "We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who've been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried ‌in their countries of origin."

The fate of the suspected ISIS fighters, ⁠as well ⁠as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.

At the height of its power from 2014-2017, ISIS held swathes of Syria and Iraq, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.

Arab World

Chad Govt Shuts Sudan Border Until Further Notice 

Children poke their heads and arms through holes in makeshift fabric fences in the strategic opposition-controlled town of Akobo, Jonglei State, on February 12, 2026. (AFP)
Children poke their heads and arms through holes in makeshift fabric fences in the strategic opposition-controlled town of Akobo, Jonglei State, on February 12, 2026. (AFP)
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Chad Govt Shuts Sudan Border Until Further Notice 

Children poke their heads and arms through holes in makeshift fabric fences in the strategic opposition-controlled town of Akobo, Jonglei State, on February 12, 2026. (AFP)
Children poke their heads and arms through holes in makeshift fabric fences in the strategic opposition-controlled town of Akobo, Jonglei State, on February 12, 2026. (AFP)

Chad's government said on Monday it was closing the border with Sudan until further notice, following several clashes between Chadian soldiers and armed groups involved in the civil war across the frontier.

"This decision follows repeated incursions and violations committed by the forces involved in the conflict in Sudan on Chadian territory," Communications Minister Mahamat Gassim Cherif said in a statement, adding that he wanted to halt "any risk of the conflict spreading" to his country.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been fighting government troops for almost three years in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering what the UN says is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The paramilitaries have conducted several operations near the Chad border and at least nine Chadian soldiers have been killed in separate incidents since December.

Monday's statement said Chad "reserves the right to retaliate against any aggression or violation of the inviolability of its territory and its borders".

"Cross-border movements of goods and people are suspended," the text said, adding that "exceptional exemptions" for humanitarian reasons would still be possible.

Arab World

Report: US Forces to Complete Withdrawal from Syria within a Month 

Men watch as a US military mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored fighting vehicle moves in a convoy along a highway outside Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on February 23, 2026. (AFP) 
Men watch as a US military mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored fighting vehicle moves in a convoy along a highway outside Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on February 23, 2026. (AFP) 
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Report: US Forces to Complete Withdrawal from Syria within a Month 

Men watch as a US military mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored fighting vehicle moves in a convoy along a highway outside Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on February 23, 2026. (AFP) 
Men watch as a US military mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) armored fighting vehicle moves in a convoy along a highway outside Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on February 23, 2026. (AFP) 

US forces that led the anti-ISIS coalition in Syria started leaving a major base in the northeast on Monday and should complete their withdrawal from the country within a month, sources told AFP. 

The move comes after Kurdish forces, long backed by Washington in the fight against the ISIS group, ceded territory to Damascus and agreed to integrate into the state. 

American forces have already withdrawn from two other bases in the past two weeks, Al-Tanf in the southeast and Shaddadi in the northeast. 

"Within a month, they will have withdrawn from Syria and there will no longer be any military presence in the bases," a Syrian government official said, with a Kurdish source confirming the timeline. 

A third source, a diplomat, said the withdrawal should be completed within 20 days. 

The United States has about 1,000 troops still deployed in Syria. It began withdrawing on Monday from the Qasrak base in the northeast, which is still under the control of Kurdish forces, a Kurdish official who requested anonymity told AFP. 

An AFP team saw a convoy of dozens of trucks, loaded with armored vehicles and prefabricated structures, on a road linking the Qasrak base in Hasakeh province to the border with Iraq. 

Syria's government recently extended its control to the northeast of the country. 

Washington has drawn close to Syria's new authorities since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.