Senior PMF Official, Three Members Arrested in Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Iraqi security forces arrested a senior Popular Mobilization Forces official and three other PMF members in Baghdad on Monday, according to Iraqi media citing a security source, in a development that comes as the federal government prepares a broader campaign to place weapons and decisions over armed force under exclusive state authority.

The security source said Akram Abu Jaafar, identified as a member of the PMF General Staff, was detained at his home in Baghdad on the morning of Aug. 24.

The reason for his arrest was not immediately disclosed.

During the same security operation, three other PMF members were arrested in the Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad, the source said, without identifying them or providing details of the allegations or legal grounds for their detention.

No official statement from the Iraqi government, judiciary or PMF concerning the arrests was included in the supplied reporting.

The PMF is formally incorporated into Iraq's security establishment, although its broader structure includes factions with distinct political affiliations and, in some cases, significant operational autonomy. That overlap between formal state institutions and politically connected armed groups has become central to Baghdad's current effort to consolidate control over weapons.

Arrests follow earlier confrontation

Monday's detentions come one week after Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service forces arrested Abbas Yaqoubi, the PMF intelligence chief in Dhi Qar, before transferring him to Baghdad.

Yaqoubi was released two days later after a court acquitted him and ordered his release.

Kurdistan24 previously reported, citing a PMF source, that his detention generated threats of escalation from several armed-group leaders and brought tensions close to the point of an armed confrontation around Baghdad's Green Zone.

According to that source, faction leaders also warned Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi against further raids on the homes of PMF members.

Those claims were attributed to the PMF source and were not independently established in the supplied reporting.

The latest arrests therefore carry added sensitivity because they come after a previous detention triggered a sharp reaction from actors connected to Iraq's armed-faction environment.

Sept. 30 deadline approaches

The operation also coincides with Baghdad's increasingly explicit effort to assert exclusive state authority over weapons.

Security Advisor to Iraq's Prime Minister Qasim al-Araji said Sunday that the government would begin a gradual arms-control process after the scheduled Sept. 30 withdrawal of international Coalition forces.

"The decision for war and peace lies solely with the state," al-Araji said.

He said the government had developed a timetable and mechanism intended to separate armed groups from political parties and facilitate the surrender of weapons to state institutions.

Baghdad is currently negotiating with five armed organizations that have not agreed to surrender their weapons: Harakat al-Nujaba, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, Saraya Awliya al-Dam and Ashab al-Kahf.

Al-Araji said three groups, Saraya al-Salam, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, had already surrendered their weapons and moved toward civilian political activity.

The process remains politically contentious.

The Badr Organization has warned that forcibly disarming armed factions could trigger internal conflict, while Nujaba has publicly rejected handing over its weapons. Other groups have tied disarmament to the withdrawal of US forces and improvements in Iraq's national defense capabilities.

Against that backdrop, the arrest of a PMF General Staff member and three additional members adds another test for the federal government as it seeks to distinguish between lawful state security structures and armed actors whose political and military power has complicated Baghdad's authority.

With the reasons for Monday's detentions still undisclosed, it remains unclear whether the operation is directly connected to the government's wider weapons-control campaign.

But coming weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline, and only days after a previous PMF arrest generated warnings of escalation, the detentions are likely to draw close attention from both state institutions and powerful armed factions.