Iraqi forces arrest politicians in Baghdad anti-corruption crackdown

Iraqi security forces moved into Baghdad's Green Zone before dawn and arrested politicians, lawmakers and senior government officials in a widening anti-corruption drive ordered by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. Elite Counter Terrorism Service units raided homes and offices, turning the capital's most fortified district into the center of a test of whether Zaidi will confront graft inside Iraq's political class or stop at selective targets.

The arrests followed judicial warrants, but the government had not issued a formal public statement as the operation unfolded. That silence added to the political weight of the raids, because the Green Zone houses parliament, foreign embassies and the prime minister's office, and any sustained push there reaches directly into the machinery of state power in Baghdad.

The latest detentions were linked to testimony from Adnan al-Jumaili, the recently detained deputy oil minister, whose case appears to have widened investigators' focus. Some of the people targeted on Sunday fled before security forces arrived, prompting authorities to close Green Zone entrances and launch a broader search for suspects tied to corruption networks.

Zaidi took office only in May and has made combating graft one of his central promises. That pledge comes after years in which corruption has repeatedly outlasted reform campaigns and previous crackdowns have often ended as short-lived shows of force rather than durable accountability.

The next stage will determine whether the arrests mark a genuine institutional effort or another factional purge shaped by the balance of power in Baghdad. If the inquiry keeps expanding beyond a few officials and reaches people protected by political allies, it would show the judiciary and security services backing a deeper clean-up. If it stalls after the Green Zone raids, it will look much like the familiar pattern of anti-corruption drives that briefly shake Iraq's elite and then fade.