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Iraqi Forces Launch Night Raid on Armed Factions

An Iraqi security guard near the US embassy in the Green Zone (File Photo: AFP)
An Iraqi security guard near the US embassy in the Green Zone (File Photo: AFP)
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Iraqi Forces Launch Night Raid on Armed Factions

An Iraqi security guard near the US embassy in the Green Zone (File Photo: AFP)
An Iraqi security guard near the US embassy in the Green Zone (File Photo: AFP)

The Iraqi government launched a night raid on armed factions accused of firing Katyusha rockets into the Green Zone, the Iraqi army, and international coalition forces.

The government's recent move came within the framework of previous pledges of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to “restrict weapons to the state” and “no party or force has the right to operate outside the state.”

Kadhimi previously warned Katyusha-launching groups that they will be prosecuted according to the anti-terrorism law.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command issued a statement announcing that the Iraqi army arrested 14 suspects for firing rockets at the Baghdad International Airport and heavily guarded Green Zone.

The statement added that the arrest was based on intelligence information that the group had previously targeted those areas with gunfire and rockets. It added that a special investigation committee was formed by the Interior Ministry to complete the investigation on the suspects.


The statement also revealed that the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services (CTS) conducted the raid to detain suspects who are "wanted by the Iraqi judicial council".

“The defendants have been handed over to the security services until the investigation is completed and a decision is made by the judiciary,” concluded the statement.

Following the raid, armed factions paraded over 30 government vehicles in the Green Zone at Friday dawn, and it approached the headquarters of the Counter-Terrorism Services, the statement stated that these parties do not want to be part of the state and seek to remain outside the authority of the Commander in Chief of legal armed forces.

The Operations Command stressed that this behavior is a threat to the state’s security and its democratic political system, and cannot be allowed under any pretext.

Armed groups affiliated with Iran tried to promote that some of the detainees were released and the prime minister offered his apologies for the raid, which was denied by the release of the statement.

Although the joint command did not name which group the detainees belonged to, security observers and sources close to the government said they were members of Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, which are loyal to Iran.

The sources said that the security units raid targeted the group’s headquarters in al-Buaytha area, in the south of Baghdad, and indicated that the operation was preceded by another operation, during which three members of the brigades were arrested.

The members confessed to carrying out the Katyusha shelling that occurred near the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in the Green Zone and the headquarters of the CTS near Baghdad International Airport.

The government and groups supporting it insist that the operation targeted the outlaws, and not members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), as sources close to Hezbollah Brigades stressed it was necessary to maintain the relationship between the PMF and the CTS.

Member of Asaib Ahl al-Haq Naeem al-Aboudi tweeted wondering who would benefit from sowing discord between the PMF and the Counter-Terrorism Services, warning against the consequences it could bring to Iraq.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stressed that PMF is an element of power for the Iraqi nation and country.

“We should respect this force and maintain their position,” he tweeted.

He added that Iraq also honors its CTS forces and their sacrifices for the nation, noting that it is impermissible to attack these and other national security forces. Maliki went on to call for restraint from all sides and resolve problems without foreign intervention.

In addition, the deputy secretary-general of the Iraqi al-Nujaba Movement, Nasr al-Shammari, warned against any attempt to attack the PMF and create internal sedition in these difficult times in the country amid the spread of the outbreak.

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Arab World

Sudan Civil War Overwhelms Border Town in Neighbor Chad as Refugees Find Little Help

A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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Sudan Civil War Overwhelms Border Town in Neighbor Chad as Refugees Find Little Help

A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
A Sudanese army soldier walks toward a truck-mounted gun left behind by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Salha, south of Omdurman, a day after recapturing it from the RSF, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

Fatima Omas Abdullah wakes up every morning with aches and pains from sleeping on bare ground for almost two years. She did not expect Sudan's civil war to displace her for so long into neighboring Chad.

“There is nothing here,” she said, crying and shaking the straw door of her makeshift home. Since April 2023, she has been in the Adre transit camp a few hundred meters from the Sudanese border, along with almost a quarter-million others fleeing the fighting, The Associated Press said.

Now the US- backed aid system that kept hundreds of thousands like Abdullah alive on the edge of one of the world’s most devastating wars is fraying. Under the Trump administration, key foreign aid has been slashed and funding withdrawn from United Nations programs that feed, treat and shelter refugees.

In 2024, the US contributed $39.3 million to the emergency response in Chad. So far this year, it has contributed about $6.8 million, the UN says. Overall, only 13% of the requested money to support refugees in Chad this year has come in from all donors, according to UN data.

In Adre, humanitarian services were already limited as refugees are meant to move to more established camps deeper inside Chad.

Many Sudanese, however, choose to stay. Some are heartened by the military’s recent successes against rival paramilitary forces in the capital, Khartoum. They have swelled the population of this remote, arid community that was never meant to hold so many. Prices have shot up. Competition over water is growing.

Adre isn’t alone. As the fighting inside Sudan’s remote Darfur region shifts, the stream of refugees has created a new, more isolated transit camp called Tine. Since late April, 46,000 people have arrived.

With the aid cuts, there is even less to offer them there.

235,000 Sudanese in a border town Adre has become a fragile frontline for an estimated 235,000 Sudanese. They are among the 1.2 million who have fled into eastern Chad.

Before the civil war, Adre was a town of about 40,000. As Sudanese began to arrive, sympathetic residents with longtime cross-border ties offered them land.

Now there is a sea of markets and shelters, along with signs of Sudanese intending to stay. Some refugees are constructing multi-story buildings.

Sudanese-run businesses form one of Adre’s largest markets. Locals and refugees barter in Sudanese pounds for everything from produce to watches.

“There is respect between the communities,” said resident Asadiq Hamid Abdullah, who runs a donkey cart. “But everyone is complaining that the food is more expensive.”

Chad is one of the world’s poorest countries, with almost 50% of the population living below the poverty line.

Locals say the price of water has quadrupled since the start of Sudan’s civil war as demand rises. Sudanese women told The Associated Press that fights had broken out at the few water pumps for them, installed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

Even food aid could run out shortly. The UN World Food Program says funding to support Sudanese refugees in Adre is guaranteed only until July, as the US aid cuts force a 30% reduction in staff worldwide. The UN refugee agency has seen 30% of its funding cut for this area, eastern Chad.

Samia Ahmed, who cradled her 3-year-old and was pregnant with her second child, said she has found work cleaning and doing laundry because the WFP rations don’t last the month.

“I see a gloomy future,” she said.

Sudanese try to fill aid gaps Sudanese are trying to fill gaps in aid, running private schools and their own humanitarian area with a health clinic and women’s center.

Local and UN authorities, however, are increasing the pressure on them to leave Adre. There are too many people here, they say.

“A vast city,” said Hamit Hadjer Abdullai with Chad’s National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees.

He said crime was increasing. Police warn of the Colombians, a Sudanese gang. Locals said it operates with impunity, though Abdullai claimed that seven leaders have been jailed.

“People must move,” said Benoit Kayembe Mukendi, the UN refugee agency’s local representative. “For security reasons and for their protection.”

As the Chadian population begins to demand their land back, Mukendi warned of a bigger security issue ahead.

But most Sudanese won’t go. The AP spoke to dozens who said they had been relocated to camps and returned to Adre to be closer to their homeland and the transit camp's economic opportunities.

There are risks. Zohal Abdullah Hamad was relocated but returned to run a coffee stand. One day, a nearby argument escalated and gunfire broke out. Hamad was shot in the gut.

“I became cold. I was immobile,” she said, crying as she recalled the pain. She said she has closed her business.

The latest Sudanese arrivals to Adre have no chance to establish themselves. On the order of local authorities, they are moved immediately to other camps. The UN said it is transporting 2,000 of them a day.

In Tine, arriving Sudanese find nothing The new and rapidly growing camp of Tine, around 180 kilometers (111 miles) north of Adre, has seen 46,000 refugees arrive since late April from Northern Darfur.

Their sheer numbers caused a UN refugee representative to gasp.

Thousands jostle for meager portions of food distributed by community kitchens. They sleep on the ground in the open desert, shaded by branches and strips of fabric. They bring witness accounts of attacks in Zamzam and El-Fasher: rape, robbery, relatives shot before their eyes.

With the US aid cuts, the UN and partners cannot respond as before, when people began to pour into Adre after the start of the war, UN representative Jean Paul Habamungu Samvura said.

“If we have another Adre here ... it will be a nightmare.”