The ministry’s spokesman, Miqdad Miri, denied to Rudaw that Baghdad has granted “temporary residence for humanitarian reasons to dozens of soldiers” affiliated with the regime of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.”
Miri’s remarks were seemingly in response to some pan-Arab media reports suggesting that the Iraqi government had offered shelter to officers and commanders of the ousted Syrian regime. The reports claimed that Baghdad had agreed to allow their entry through eastern Syria’s Albu Kamal border crossing, adjacent to the Iraqi border, after they surrendered their weapons.
Emphasizing that Baghdad has “not taken any action” regarding “granting residency” to commanders and officers of the dissolved Syrian army, Miri urged “obtaining information exclusively from official sources,” condemning the reports as “malicious rumors.”
Following a swift offensive, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8 toppled Assad’s regime. In late January, the new leadership in Damascus dissolved the country’s army and parliament, and annulled its constitution.
On December 7, an Iraqi government spokesperson, Bassem Awadi, confirmed to Rudaw that "about 2,000 Syrian soldiers" had taken refuge in Iraqi border regions and entered Iraq with Baghdad’s consent. However, by mid-December, Iraq’s Security Media Cell announced that Baghdad had repatriated them.
