Sherwan Dubardani, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir that the new force is intended to address security gaps in the vast desert area after an executive order was issued on Sunday to establish a new Desert Operations Command in Muthanna province near the Saudi border.
“The formation of this force is to fill the security vacuum in the Muthanna desert and to prevent any attacks that might be carried out from that border,” Dubardani said.
The move comes amid heightened tensions between Baghdad and Riyadh over attacks allegedly launched from Iraqi territory. On July 28, Saudi Arabia accused Iraqi armed groups of carrying out drone attacks against its energy facilities.