Iraq heightens combat readiness to secure territorial waters and ports

Iraq ordered an increase in combat readiness on Saturday, 14 March, to secure its territorial waters and protect its oil and commercial ports.

The Iraqi Navy stated in a statement that its commander, Mazen Abdul Wahid Kabyan, conducted an inspection encompassing Grand Faw Port in southern Iraq and port protection forces.

Kabyan also reviewed two oil tankers that were attacked earlier in the week at a breakwater facility connected to the port and in the Khor Abdullah channel in Basra province.

On Wednesday, Iraqi media reported that two foreign oil tankers became targets in Iraqi territorial waters near Basra Port, causing fires aboard both vessels.

Kabyan ordered an increase in combat readiness to secure Iraqi territorial waters and protect oil and commercial ports, describing them as the “lifeblood of Iraq’s economy,” according to the Iraqi News Agency.

Regional tensions have escalated since Israel and the United States launched a combined assault on Iran on 28 February, killing more than 1,200 people, including the supreme leader at the time, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran responded with unmanned aircraft and missile attacks targeting Israel, alongside Jordan, Iraq and Gulf states, which Iran claimed targeted “US military assets.”