UK advises against travel to most of Iraq due to tensions between militias and political crisis

Oct. 8 () –

The British Foreign Office has issued a travel alert advising its citizens against any non-essential visit to almost all of Iraq except for the region of Iraqi Kurdistan due to the prevailing tension between the country’s militias within the political chaos that is raging the nation for months.

“Iraq remains subject to regional tensions. Militia groups opposed to the Western presence in Iraq continue to pose a threat to the UK and other interests in Iraq, including through attacks on Global Coalition military bases, facilities diplomats and foreign nationals,” according to a statement from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Beyond the regional conflict, the FCDO also warns of the aforementioned “increasing” internal tensions due to the prolonged negotiations on the formation of the government after the elections held in October 2021.

Iraq has been the scene of new mobilizations in recent days, coinciding with the third anniversary of the October 2019 protests, which resulted in at least 600 deaths throughout the country due to the reaction of the Iraqi Police and pro-Iranian militias. The protests were active for several months to demand an end to the system of government in place since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, an end to corruption, better basic services and employment.

The protests led to the resignation of the then prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was replaced –after the rejection of several nominees– by Mostafá al Kazemi, who initiated a series of reforms and called early elections, held on October 10, 2021.

Considered right now as a strong man in Iraq, the cleric Muqtada al Sadr, whose formation won last year’s elections, has given orders in recent hours to the armed groups under his control to suspend their activities in practically the entire country in order to not to increase tension after weeks of fierce clashes in the province of Basra between the religious’s forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces (FMP), a coalition of pro-Iranian militias.

The FCDO recalls in the statement that “there have been protests in the Green Zone of Baghdad” which houses the headquarters of Government and international embassies “and the security situation is at risk of deteriorating. The situation remains uncertain and could worsen even more in the short term.

For all these reasons, the FCDO recommends that British citizens “stay alert, make contingency plans, keep them constantly under review and keep up to date with the latest developments in the country.”