Iraq arrests politicians and officials in anti-corruption crackdown
Before dawn in Baghdad’s Green Zone, Iraqi forces arrested politicians and senior officials in a raid tied to the oil ministry and carried out on judicial warrants.
Iraqi security forces arrested politicians, lawmakers and senior government officials before dawn on Sunday in Baghdad’s Green Zone, widening an anti-corruption drive ordered by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. Elite Counter Terrorism Service units raided homes in the fortified district on judicial warrants, and the government gave no immediate public statement after the arrests.
The Green Zone houses parliament, foreign embassies and the prime minister’s office, making the operation one of the most politically sensitive moves yet in Zaidi’s campaign. Iraq’s state news agency said some lawmakers detained in the operation had already had their parliamentary immunity lifted, a sign that the legal process had advanced far enough to reach sitting politicians.
The arrests followed an earlier oil-sector case that had already pushed the investigation into higher ranks of government. Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili was arrested last month on corruption charges, and statements taken after that arrest helped produce the warrants used on Sunday. Separate reporting on the same anti-graft push said the arrest of deputy oil minister Adnan Mohamed Mahmoud led authorities to seize 3 billion Iraqi dinars, about $10 million, along with gold jewelry, assault rifles and ammunition. Iraq’s Central Anti-Corruption Court later seized 40 properties in that case.
The oil ministry is a politically loaded target in a country whose economy depends on petroleum revenue. Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index put Iraq at 28 out of 100 and ranked it 136th of 182 countries, while the United Nations Development Programme and Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said in February 2025 that their trial-monitoring report on the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court showed progress in high-level corruption prosecutions and stronger convictions. Those findings place Sunday’s arrests inside a judicial framework that had already produced convictions and asset seizures, and they set a high bar for whether the campaign reaches beyond a few visible names in the Green Zone.
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