Iraq records 600+ suicides despite falling crime
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Suicide cases in Iraq reached 617 in the first half of 2026 despite an 18% decline in overall crime, the Interior Ministry stated on Tuesday, warning that the phenomenon was becoming an increasingly serious social challenge.
Read more: Iraq’s rising suicide cases
Presenting the ministry's mid-year security assessment, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Muqdad Miri said authorities recorded the sharpest decline in crime in Baghdad's al-Karkh district, where criminal incidents fell 51%, while Basra reported the highest number of criminal cases nationwide. Security forces solved 82% of reported crimes, including 79% of homicide cases.
The ministry also reported major gains in law enforcement during the first six months of the year. Authorities arrested 766 suspects over celebratory and illegal gunfire, seized nearly 2 metric tons of narcotics and more than 4 million illicit pills, while courts handed down 58 death sentences and 263 life sentences in drug-related cases. Security forces also conducted 17 intelligence operations beyond Iraq's borders.
Read more: Iraq fights back against synthetic drug flood
Border forces arrested 2,054 infiltrators and fugitives, confiscated hundreds of vehicles and shipping containers used in smuggling operations, and seized contraband including cigarettes, unlicensed medicines, narcotics, fuel, livestock, gold, and foreign currency.
The ministry said Energy Police arrested 378 suspects involved in fuel smuggling, dismantled 28 smuggling sites in Baghdad and Saladin, and seized more than 9 million liters of petroleum products intended for illegal trade.
Separately, authorities arrested 83 suspects in cyber extortion cases, 25 in online financial fraud investigations and 52 linked to human trafficking. The ministry also recorded more than 9,000 cases of domestic violence involving assaults by husbands against their wives, compared with 2,235 cases involving wives assaulting their husbands.
