Shafaq News – Kirkuk

A pre-dawn raid on suspected drug traffickers in Kirkuk ended with the death of a SWAT officer, underscoring the growing human cost of Iraq’s escalating campaign against narcotics networks.

Commissioned officer Laith, a member of the Kirkuk SWAT regiment, was killed during an operation in the Darman area along the Kirkuk–Erbil road. The raid was carried out by a joint force from SWAT units and the anti-narcotics directorate, acting on intelligence that pointed to a drug-trafficking cell operating from a farm in the area.

Security officials said the force managed to surround two suspects before the operation spiraled when one of them seized a nearby civilian family in an apparent attempt to obstruct the raid. As officers moved to contain the situation and secure the hostages, gunfire broke out, wounding Laith and several others.

He was rushed to hospital but later died from his injuries. He is survived by his wife and a daughter born just weeks earlier.

“My son believed in his duty and never turned away from responsibility,” his father told Shafaq News. “He left home that morning like any other day and asked us to pray for him. We did not know those would be his final words.”

Kirkuk police spokesman Col. Amer Nouri Al-Shawani said the operation resulted in the arrest of a key suspect, the death of another during the clash, and the rescue of the civilian family without injury. Weapons, ammunition, and narcotics were seized at the site, and a formal investigation was opened.

“The sacrifices of our personnel will not slow our campaign,” Al-Shawani said, adding that security forces remain committed to dismantling drug networks operating in the province.

The killing comes as Iraq intensifies its fight against narcotics, a trade that has shifted from transit to domestic consumption in recent years. The Interior Ministry said more than 1,200 local and international drug networks have been dismantled over the past three years, with over 14 tons of narcotics seized. Recent operations in Diyala and Basra alone led to the confiscation of more than 50 kilograms of drugs and the arrest of senior traffickers.

For Laith’s family, those figures offer little solace. His death has turned a national campaign into a private loss—one shared quietly by a wife and a child who will grow up knowing her father only through stories.

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