ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi parliament members on Sunday voted to terminate three ministry of defense officials over the fatal shooting of an Iraqi fisherman in Iraqi-Kuwaiti waters by the Kuwaiti coast guard amid disputes over shared maritime borders.
On Sunday, members of parliament approved a committee recommendation to terminate navy commander Mazin Kibyan, director of operations Wael Abdulmuhsin, and Commander of the First Umm Qassir navy unit Layth Abdulstar, over the killing of a fisherman identified as Najim Abdullah Khalid al-Tamimi and the injuring, detention and eventual release of four other Iraqi fishermen.
Tamimi and four other fishermen were on the same boat when the Kuwaiti coast guard opened fire and detained the remaining on July 3. Tamimi’s body was handed over six days later.
This comes amid ongoing disputes over maritime borders after the UN demarcation in 1993, following Iraq’s invasion and short-lived occupation of Kuwait.
The two countries signed a border agreement in 2012, which Iraq ratified in its parliament in 2013. However, the federal supreme court in 2023 declared the 2012 agreement invalid, arguing that such treaties need to be passed by two-thirds of the parliament.
Iraqi members of parliament issued recommendations calling for investigations to identify responsible individuals, inform the parliament of results and proceedings, and to form a joint committee to release other Iraqi fishermen who have been arrested in Kuwait and put on trial, as the committee work towards compensating the fishermen and retrieving their impounded boats from Kuwaiti authorities.
Meanwhile, the incident has sent shockwaves across Iraq, sparking angry protests in Basra, Iraq's southernmost and Abdullah's home province, with demonstrators calling on Baghdad to secure justice for the slain fisherman.
Iraqi Premier Ali al-Zaidi directed the foreign ministry, the army chief of staff, and local security authorities to investigate the incident, stressing the "importance of taking all legal measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and to protect the lives and property of our citizens."
The disparity between Kuwaiti and Iraqi officials reached an impasse during the Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs official visit to Kuwait in early July.
According to an official statement, the Kuwaiti side showed the Iraqi delegation a video of the incident, which occurred at night, claiming that the Kuwait coastal guard “didn’t intend to cause losses.”
In January and February of 2026, Iraq shared new maps with the UN. In February, Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), which includes Kuwait, expressed their rejection of Iraq’s maritime claims with Kuwait claiming that the new maps encroach on its territory.
The two countries have yet to officially demarcate their maritime borders.
