Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigade sets 10 conditions for weapons handover process in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigade, an Iran-backed Iraqi armed faction, outlined 10 conditions on Thursday for engaging in a national weapons inventory process, demanding a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by land, sea and air and barring Iraqi airspace from being used as a launchpad for operations against other countries, particularly neighboring states. The group's second condition calls for two legal frameworks governing the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), preserving the rights of its fighters, martyrs and wounded, protecting their dignity, regulating their work and strengthening them in terms of military equipment and personnel. A third condition demands full federal sovereignty over Iraqi territory through the country's federal security forces. The fourth condition requires modernizing Iraq's air defense systems under exclusive Iraqi decision-making and securing Iraqi airspace, while also demanding the complete removal of PKK elements from Iraqi territory to prevent them from serving as a pretext for Turkish military operations in northern Iraq. A seventh condition stipulates that the Iraq-Kurdistan region's borders be controlled solely by the Iraqi army and that all border crossings be placed under federal government administration. The brigade did not disclose the full text of all 10 conditions, and no Iraqi government response was immediately available. The faction's demands add a new dimension to Iraq's broader debate over the integration and disarmament of armed groups operating outside the state security framework.