FILES: A security officer lies wounded after gunmen opened fire on forces and municipal teams during an operation to remove unauthorized residential structures in Baghdad’s Doura area on Aug. 27, 2026.
Drones to monitor Baghdad land encroachments after officers killed
BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities will use drones to monitor encroachment on state and agricultural land in Baghdad, the director of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief said Sunday, among measures ordered after two security personnel were shot dead during a demolition operation.
“Drones will be used, alongside other technical measures, to continuously monitor the land and encroachments, with the aim of reaching fundamental and final solutions to this problem,” Abdul Amir al-Shammari told the Iraqi News Agency. A meeting with the Baghdad governor, the mayor, Baghdad Operations Command and deputy ministers produced measures including halting encroachments, a high-level committee to pursue them across the capital and committees in individual areas to identify and monitor violations.
“We are facing a problem related to the clearing of agricultural land in Baghdad governorate, as well as encroachments on state land, which unfortunately resulted in the martyrdom of an officer and a member of the security forces, and the injury of a number of security personnel and Baghdad Municipality employees,” he said.
Brig. Gen. Hisham Mohammed Talaa, who directed the Baghdad Municipality Police Department on the Karkh side, and security member Khalid Abbas Lafta were killed on Thursday when demolition teams came under fire in Karara, in Hayy Dijla, with four others wounded. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met their families on Sunday and ordered full support and a posthumous promotion for each man, saying “the martyrs represent a beacon for the nation” and that justice would take its course.
Security forces arrested the suspected gunman on Saturday after three days of contradictory official accounts. Parliament has moved to investigate land subdivision and encroachment, with MP Yousif al-Kalabi telling Al-Sabah that the leadership had directed the harshest penalties for those responsible and an inquiry into the individuals and entities behind the practice, which he said had expanded unregulated neighbourhoods, changed Baghdad’s urban form and cut green space.