Shafaq News- Kirkuk
A change in the leadership of Iraq’s Kirkuk Operations Command is expected, with Lt. Gen. Ali Fadel Al-Mafraji nominated to take over the strategically sensitive security post, a security source told Shafaq News on Saturday.
The source said Al-Mafraji, currently commander of West Nineveh Operations and originally from Diyala province, had received an assignment order on Sept. 2 to lead the Kirkuk Operations Command. If finalized, he would succeed Maj. Gen. Maad Badai Al-Daraji, who took command on May 11.
No public announcement has yet been issued by Iraq’s military authorities confirming the change.
The Kirkuk Operations Command oversees security and military operations across the province and surrounding areas, with its responsibilities extending south toward Tuz Khurmatu district in Saladin province.
The position carries particular significance because Kirkuk remains one of Iraq’s most politically and militarily sensitive provinces. The oil-rich territory is disputed between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), while its population includes Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Christian communities.
Article 140 of Iraq’s Constitution established a process of normalization, census and referendum to determine the status of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, but the process was never completed despite an original 2007 deadline. The unresolved issue remains a recurring source of political tension between Baghdad and Erbil.
Control of the province has also shifted sharply over the past decade. Kurdish Peshmerga forces moved into Kirkuk during ISIS’s 2014 offensive after federal forces withdrew from several northern areas. Iraqi federal forces reasserted control over the province in October 2017 following the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
Although ISIS lost territorial control in Iraq in 2017, remnants continue to operate in Kirkuk’s rural, mountainous and agricultural areas, particularly around Wadi Al-Shay, Zghaitoun Valley, Hawija and areas linking Kirkuk with Saladin and Diyala.
Kirkuk security forces killed 43 ISIS militants in 2025, according to the former operations commander, while Iraqi forces have continued raids, airstrikes and clearance operations throughout 2026. In August alone, security forces destroyed eight ISIS hideouts within the Kirkuk Operations Command’s area of responsibility, while three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a roadside bombing near Wadi Al-Shay.
Read more: Discover Iraq: Kirkuk, a city of oil, culture, and conflict