Will Iraq’s oil smuggling crackdown disarm militias without a conflict?

The Iraqi government has launched a sweeping anticorruption crackdown centred on the Jurf al-Sakhar area, a stronghold of Iran-linked militias near Baghdad. The campaign has seen the dismissal and judicial referral of nine senior officials accused of corruption. It has also led to the sacking of top security directors, the Babil police chief and the director of the Oil Pipelines Company at the Ministry of Oil. While officially framed as an initiative to protect public funds from a widespread smuggling network, analysts believe the move is a highly calculated strategy to sever the financial arteries of armed factions that refuse to integrate into the state apparatus.