Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi security forces on Friday surrounded a headquarters belonging to an armed faction affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) on the outskirts of Baghdad after discovering a drone manufacturing workshop at the site, a security source told Shafaq News.

The compound, in the Jurf Al-Naddaf area, had allegedly been used to launch drones toward the US Embassy and the military section of Baghdad International Airport, the source said. Warning shots were fired as forces tightened the cordon around the site, where the raid was still underway at the time of reporting.

On Tuesday, Iraq’s National Security Service (INSS) dismantled another drone facility in Baghdad and arrested three suspects, seizing 25 drone frames, carbon-fiber panels, manufactured components, assembly equipment, and other production materials.

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council had directed courts on June 24 to apply the Anti-Terrorism Law to the illegal manufacture, possession, or use of drones linked to criminal activity or threats to public security, following a wave of drone attacks and crashes across the country after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28.

Shafaq News documented incidents in at least 14 of Iraq's 19 provinces in the first weeks of war between Iran and the US in March, affecting military facilities, airports, diplomatic compounds, energy infrastructure, armed-group positions, and civilian areas.