Shafaq News -Baghdad (Updated at 11:58)
Iraq has entered roughly six million weapons into a national database as part of a state campaign to bring arms under government control, a senior Interior Ministry official said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference held by the Permanent National Committee for Regulating Weapons and Restricting Arms to State Control, a government body overseeing Iraq's effort to place all weapons under state authority, Major General Miqdad Miri, head of the Interior Ministry's Relations and Media Department, said the ministry had seized 143,000 unregistered firearms and closed 71 offices operating "falsely under the name of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)," an umbrella of predominantly Shiite armed factions incorporated into Iraq's state security apparatus.
"The committee currently has a database covering six million weapons across the country," Miri said. "There was initially some distrust, and turnout for free weapons registration was low, but the situation has now changed, and registration has increased significantly."
The ministry has opened 845 registration offices across all provinces, according to Miri. More than 160,000 people have received possession licenses, over half a million citizen-owned firearms have been registered, and 2,668 stolen weapons have been detected.
Miri said any drone flying without official authorization would be treated as a terrorist threat.
Weapons registration closes on December 31, 2026, after which anyone holding an unregistered firearm will be considered outside the law, Miri added.
Responding to Shafaq News correspondent's question regarding planning to impose a nationwide curfew coinciding with the September 30 deadline for consolidating weapons under state control, Miri affirmed no such instructions currently exist. "The information is incorrect. The procedures are technical, and there was a precautionary technical measure, currently, there are no instructions on this matter."
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