Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq's prime minister's office has ordered an investigation into reports of oil smuggling in Jurf al-Sakhr (Jurf Al-Nasr) days after Shafaq News revealed a confidential government intelligence report that used satellite imagery to document five years of suspected smuggling activity near pipelines in the area.

Gen. Abdul Amir al-Shammari, director of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, instructed Lt. Gen. Saad Mohsen Uraibi to chair an investigation into information concerning the smuggling in Jurf al-Nasr, as the area is officially known, according to a document dated Tuesday and seen by Shafaq News.

The committee includes the commander of the Federal Police, the head of the Popular Mobilization Forces’ General Directorate of Security and Discipline, and representatives of the Federal Integrity Commission and the Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency.

The 19-page report obtained by Shafaq News found that large tankers had repeatedly frequented sites near oil pipelines in Jurf al-Sakhr, in northern Babil province, between 2021 and 2026. It also identified facilities suspected of being used to store oil, some of them underground and hidden under steel structures. The report said the area is under the control and protection of an armed faction, without naming it.

Babil Governor Ali Turki al-Jamali denied the smuggling reports, saying no oil pipeline runs through the area. Speaking during an unannounced evening tour of the area with journalists, al-Jamali said they had used GPS coordinates visible in an image aired by some media outlets to locate the site in question. "It turned out to be an old fuel station named Al-Madina Al-Munawwara," he said. He did not address other images of the area circulated online.

Read more: Satellite report flags suspected oil smuggling in Iraq’s Jurf al-Sakhr