Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has sacked nine officials over suspected smuggling of crude oil and petroleum products in Jurf al-Sakhar, a town in Babil province that the pro-Iran Badr Organisation has controlled since 2014 and that Iraq’s National Security Adviser described in October as a no-go zone for state institutions. Al Jazeera reported the dismissed include four generals, the town’s mayor, its intelligence chief and the head of Babil’s oil products distribution department; Arab News named the mayor and added the provincial head of electricity production. The prime minister’s office said the officials had failed to do their duty and that there was no tolerance for smuggling Iraq’s resources.
The dismissals follow an 18-month National Security Service investigation. Government officials cited by Arab News put the smuggling trade’s value to armed factions at about $1 billion a year, with armed groups collecting tolls from tanker trucks at checkpoints; Al Jazeera put the cost to the country in the billions of dollars a year, with thousands of barrels a day smuggled. Badr leader Hadi al-Ameri called the accusations against Badr baseless, and the move comes five days after parliamentary elections in which Badr won the most seats in Babil, and amid United States pressure on Baghdad to rein in Iran-backed factions and the smuggling of Iranian oil relabelled as Iraqi.