Two Iraqi police wounded following clashes with a Iran-backed Shia militia

Major clashes took place between Iraq's federal police and an Iran-backed militia in the Dora area south of the capital city of Baghdad early on Monday, with several police forces wounded, local Iraqi media channels and Iraq's interior ministry said.

Iraqi interior ministry's security media department in a statement on Tuesday announced that security forces accompanying Baghdad municipality teams were attacked while they were removing illegal buildings on public properties in the Dora area, without identifying the intent of the attackers.

Two police officers were slightly injured following clashes with the attackers who were later arrested, the ministry clarified. 

Video clips posted online on Twitter by Iraqi social media users show an officer from Iraq's federal police forces bleeding amid heavy gunfire.  Twitter users claimed that the attackers were affiliated with Kataeb Hezbollah, or Brigades of the Party of God, an Iranian-backed Shia paramilitary group in Iraq.

#العراق
مقطع فيديو يظهر إصابة عناصر في الشرطة الاتحادية جراء اشتباكهم مع ميليشيا حزب الله في منطقة البوعيثة ببغداد. pic.twitter.com/26jBgkG5Pj

— Mustafa AL Dulaimi (@Mustafa3e5f7d3k) May 15, 2023

Iraqi political observer, Haider Barzinji, who is seen as close to the Iran-backed militias, remarked to Iraq's UTV channel that the disputed land in the Dora area was purchased by Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in order to be distributed among families of PMF martyrs. He also said that the clashes happened due to misunderstandings between the Iraqi federal police and a PMF located in the area. 

Public and private land confiscations by militias are common in Iraq, especially in areas around the capital city mostly known as the Baghdad belt. The lands are mostly palm tree farms cultivated by Arab Sunnis.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani pledged to remove armed factions from Iraqi cities and residential areas across the country within the first six months of his cabinet.

However, the deadline has passed and Sudani could not fulfil his vows to demilitarise key areas around the capital including the Sunni district of Jurf al-Sakhar, located about 60 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.