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Basra’s Largest Oil Smuggling Ring Captured

One of the demonstrations in the southern city of Basra (AFP)
One of the demonstrations in the southern city of Basra (AFP)
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Basra’s Largest Oil Smuggling Ring Captured

One of the demonstrations in the southern city of Basra (AFP)
One of the demonstrations in the southern city of Basra (AFP)

The largest network for smuggling oil byproducts in the province of Basra in southern Iraq has been shut down with the arrest of all 19 members of the crime ring.

Vehicles such as trucks and tanks used for smuggling by the group were also seized.

The ring was captured in Khor Al-Zubair city in Basra, a security source with knowledge of the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Smuggling oil is supported and run by prominent Iraqi figures, partisan groups and militias and has been ongoing for years, the source said.

More dangerously, the source pointed out that arrested smugglers are being set free shortly after their capture as a result of pressure exerted by influential figures.

He fears that the 19-member ring will soon be released in the same fashion.

“There is a large market exploiting territorial waters to smuggle various goods, especially oil and drugs, waters which the state cannot control due to its limited capabilities and lack of adequate patrol boats,” the source added.

More so, the source mentioned that the smugglers are receiving security coverage from powerful officials.

“Smugglers use special gauges issued by the Ministry of Oil on oil tanks to slip by checkpoints without any trouble—tanks aren’t being inspected because they are presenting approvals issued by official bodies,” they explained.

On the other hand, the series of assassinations continues to shake up Basra province.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Basra Mahdi al-Tamimi confirmed the killing of two women on Friday evening, one of which runs a beauty salon.

Another young man, with no history of political activities or protesting, was also killed.

Protests broke out after a number of people were sickened by polluted water in Basra. Protests in Basra province first started in July, but little to nothing has been done to provide residents with fresh water.

At least four were killed, and two were wounded in the recent violence.

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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)

Pro-Türkiye Syrian groups have scaled down their military presence in an historically Kurdish-majority area of the country's north which they have controlled since 2018, a Syrian defense ministry official said on Tuesday.

The move follows an agreement signed last month between Syria's new authorities and Kurdish officials that provides for the return of displaced Kurds, including tens of thousands who fled the Afrin region in 2018.

The pro-Ankara groups have "reduced their military presence and checkpoints" in Afrin, in Aleppo province, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Their presence has been "maintained in the region for now", said the official, adding that authorities wanted to station them in army posts but these had been a regular target of Israeli strikes.

After opposition forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the new authorities announced the disbanding of all armed groups and their integration into the new army, a move that should include pro-Türkiye groups who control swathes of northern Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area.

The United Nations has estimated that half of the enclave's 320,000 inhabitants fled during the offensive.

Last month, the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of northern and northeastern Syria struck a deal to integrate its civil and military institutions into those of the central government.

Syria's new leadership has been seeking to unify the country since the December overthrow of Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.

This month, Kurdish fighters withdrew from two neighborhoods of Aleppo as part of the deal.

Syrian Kurdish official Bedran Kurd said on X that the Aleppo city agreement "represents the first phase of a broader plan aimed at ensuring the safe return of the people of Afrin".

The autonomous Kurdish-led administration's military force, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the ISIS group in Syria in 2019.