Merged security office will follow up on the prime minister’s orders, official says

BAGHDAD — The head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell said the country’s newly created Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces exists to follow up on the prime minister’s directives and improve coordination between security institutions, without addressing the command authority set out in the order establishing it.

Saad Maan said the office’s primary task is to follow up on directives from the commander-in-chief “in a manner that ensures their efficient implementation, strengthens coordination among the relevant entities, and achieves the established objectives.”

The July 22 order, seen by 964media, merged the Joint Operations Command office, the commander-in-chief’s personal secretary’s office and the National Operations Center into a single body in Baghdad’s Green Zone. It states that the office oversees the defense and interior ministries, the Counter-Terrorism Service, the intelligence and national security services, the Popular Mobilization Forces Commission, border crossings and the Military Industrialization Authority, and that all commands, directorates and formations covered by the restructuring report directly to it.

Maan did not say whether the office holds authority over those bodies or coordinates between them, and did not address why the restructuring was not announced publicly.

The merger came after Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Ali al-Zaidi, who took office in May, replaced the leadership of most of the institutions the office now covers. In June he removed National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji, National Intelligence Service chief Hamid al-Shatri and National Security Service chief Abdul Karim al-Basri, later appointing Qasim al-Aboudi as national security adviser and Basim al-Badri to head the National Security Service. On July 22, the day of the merger order, he named Lt. Gen. Zaid al-Moussawi to lead the Counter-Terrorism Service and Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Fahd to command the Federal Police, ordered personnel rotations at border crossings and replaced brigade and unit commanders in the Border Forces Command.