Iraq PM removes 9 officials after Jurf al-Sakhar oil smuggling probe

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi relieved nine security and oil officials Saturday and ordered everyone accused of oil smuggling in Jurf al-Sakhar referred to the courts after his inquiry presented its findings.

The committee confirmed information in a Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency report on oil smuggling and the existence of oil refineries, and found cases of manipulation, Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said in a statement. Zaidi received the findings at an emergency security meeting.

Those relieved are the Babil police chief and the police director for northern Babil, along with the governorate’s directors of the National Security Service and the Iraqi National Intelligence Service. The Babil heads of the Interior Ministry’s intelligence and counterterrorism directorate and of the Defense Ministry’s intelligence and security directorate also lost their posts.

So did the Popular Mobilization Forces commander in Babil, the commander of the Energy Police’s 6th Brigade and the director of the Oil Ministry’s Oil Pipelines Company. The statement did not name any of the nine or the accused, or say how many people were referred to the courts.

Zaidi also made operations commanders, provincial police chiefs and the heads of security and intelligence agencies fully responsible for any oil smuggling in their areas, the statement said. He called for tighter oversight and security measures and for negligent officials to be held to account, and said no inch of Iraq, from Zakho to Basra, would be left to smugglers.

The statement did not mention Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned faction widely regarded as controlling Jurf al-Sakhar, or say who ran the smuggling.

The committee was chaired by an official of the Popular Mobilization Commission, the state body that runs the PMF. Earlier Saturday, sources told 964media that Zaidi had let the PMF official take over the inquiry under a deal with PMF Chief of Staff Abdul Aziz al-Muhammadawi, after Kataib Hezbollah refused to let his first committee into the area. Under the deal, investigators visited only sites agreed in advance, the sources said.

One of the sources said investigators saw small installations that looked like oil facilities but could not establish for themselves what they were used for. The statement did not describe the refineries or say where they were.

The PMF is the state-sanctioned umbrella of mostly Shiite armed groups formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group. Kataib Hezbollah has brigades in the PMF, and the United States designated it a terrorist organization in 2009. 964media found no public statement from the faction on the dismissals by late Saturday.

The intelligence report began circulating Monday. It alleges that oil is drawn from a pipeline in Jurf al-Sakhar through an unauthorized opening and carried away in tanker trucks. The Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency, an Interior Ministry body, was one of five bodies Zaidi named Wednesday to carry out the inquiry. A document dated Thursday lists 11 committee members.

Babil Governor Ali Turki rejected the allegations Tuesday, saying the site named in the report was an old fuel station used to fuel Federal Police and PMF vehicles. He said Thursday that he had resigned over the case, and a source told 964media he quit under pressure from Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iran-aligned faction Asaib Ahl al-Haq. At a news conference Saturday, Turki declined to answer reporters’ questions about his resignation. He said the event was about services projects, “not a political conference.”

Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi has ordered a separate committee of lawmakers to look into the report. It has not announced findings.

Jurf al-Sakhar, in northern Babil, was officially renamed Jurf al-Nasr in 2014 after Iraqi forces and allied armed groups recaptured it from Isis. It has been closed since then, and many of its displaced residents still cannot return.