Security chief says September militia deadline is being ‘exaggerated’

BAGHDAD — Descriptions of Sept. 30 as a deadline with broader consequences for armed factions are inaccurate, the Security Media Cell chief said Tuesday.

“What is being circulated by some, or the exaggeration of events regarding Sept. 30, is an inaccurate characterization and does not reflect the reality of the path adopted by the state,” Lt. Gen. Saad Maan told the Iraqi News Agency. “The Iraqi government is not in conflict with any formation or faction and is not dealing with this issue through the logic of confrontation or exclusion. Rather, it is dealing with it as a constitutional and legal responsibility related to Iraq’s security, stability and the safety of its society.”

The policy covers “every weapon outside the framework of the state’s official institutions, regardless of the party possessing it, including tribal weapons and any weapon that is not subject to the regulations and laws in force,” he said, rather than any particular faction. He described weapons outside state authority as “a challenge to the concept of the modern state.”

Some factions under the PMF’s official administration have begun handing over weapons and others are moving the same way, Maan said. The PMF will regulate the rights of fighters across the different formations and preserve those of their families under existing law, he said, calling the arrangements “institutional and legal” and aimed at bringing security and military activity into the state’s system.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi set Sept. 30, when the U.S.-led coalition mission ends, as the date for bringing all weapons under state control, saying in July there would be no justification for any faction after it. The governing coalition said this month that armed activity outside state authority after that date would be treated under the Anti-Terrorism Law.

The statement followed a warning from Kataib Hezbollah security official Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, who accused the government of storming homes and terrorising the families of dead and wounded fighters under American supervision and said patience was running out. Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada have refused to disarm; Saraya al-Salam, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Battalions have moved to comply.