Iraqis register 8,731 firearms in a week as seized weapons near 1.2 million

BAGHDAD — Iraqis registered 8,731 privately owned firearms with the state in the past week, the Security Media Cell said Saturday, putting the number of weapons seized across the country at nearly 1.2 million.

The registrations went through a permanent Interior Ministry committee that regulates weapons and brings them under state control, Lt. Gen. Saad Maan, head of the cell, said in a statement. They followed the established legal procedures, he said.

The cell’s running total stands at 1,191,441 weapons and 11,191,363 rounds of ammunition, taken as court exhibits or in other security operations. It also counts 201,809 rockets and bombs and 18,180 explosive items.

The totals are cumulative, not the past week’s seizures. The statement did not say what period they cover, whether they include the Kurdistan Region or how many weapons were handed in voluntarily.

Maan said the campaign followed instructions from Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and was overseen by Interior Minister Yasser al-Maliki.

Maan said the figures showed the state making steady progress toward ridding cities of unlicensed weapons and ending armed displays outside state institutions.

Security agencies will carry on their work firmly, he said, and he urged the public to keep cooperating with the authorities.

The Interior Ministry began requiring citizens to register personal firearms in January 2024, through the electronic Ur platform and hundreds of offices in Baghdad and the governorates outside the Kurdistan Region. The program came with a buyback scheme for unregistered medium weapons, and the ministry warned that owners who fail to register could face legal action.

In December 2025 the ministry extended the registration deadline to Dec. 31, 2026. More than 500,000 firearms had been registered by Aug. 10, the ministry told a news conference that day.

The registration drive covers only privately owned guns. Armed factions face a separate deadline: Zaidi pledged on Oct. 1 that the government would disarm non-Iraqi armed groups in the country and bring armed factions’ weapons under state control by June 30, 2027.

The Coordination Framework, the ruling Shiite alliance, endorsed that deadline on Oct. 19 and authorized the government to take whatever measures are needed to meet it.

Restricting weapons to the state was also among the demands at a rally in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Sunday marking the seventh anniversary of the Tishreen protests, the anti-government movement of October 2019. Protesters there also called for accountability for the 2019 killings and the prosecution of corrupt officials, and a government delegation led by Maan received their demands in the square.f