Three officers wounded in Basra drug-arrest shootout

BASRA — Three members of Iraq’s National Security Service were wounded on Sunday in a shootout with a suspected drug dealer during an arrest operation in the Abu al-Khasib district of Basra, a security source told 964media.

The source said the service was executing an arrest warrant against a suspect wanted under Iraq’s narcotics law when the man opened fire on the force, wounding three officers in their vehicle. The three were taken to Abu al-Khasib General Hospital and are in stable condition, the source said. No property damage was reported, and security forces have begun a search for the suspect, who fled after the shooting.

Iraq has handed down 362 death sentences and 1,500 life terms against convicted drug traffickers since 2023, the Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Narcotics Affairs has said. The country has become both a consumer market and a redistribution hub for the regional drug trade, no longer just a transit route, with traffickers using cross-border networks and, in some cases, GPS-equipped inflatable boats to move drugs across the Anbar border.