“The situation of Saladin province is unstable,” Ahmed Abdulkarim, head of the Saladin Provincial Council, said on Thursday. Arms and other weaponry have spread beyond the state’s control, he warned.
The council has asked Abadi, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to evict all armed groups from the province “in order to protect public stability,” Abdulkarim said in a statement on Thursday.
Security problems will be exacerbated the longer these armed groups remain in the province, he said.
Fresh tensions have emerged in Saladin since the bodies of three tribal sheikhs were discovered in the town of Dujail on Wednesday night.
Tribesmen and suspected Hashd affiliates clashed on Wednesday night, forcing the temporary closure of the Baghdad-Tikrit road.
Abdulkarim said the Iraqi Army must be deployed to Dujail.
In a separate statement, Ahmed al-Jabouri, the governor of Saladin, said he and his colleagues have met with local officials in the contested town to mediate and reduce tensions.
The governor said he had negotiated a partial Hashd withdrawal from the area.
In addition to the local rivalries, ISIS militants have also seen a resurgence in the province.
ISIS remnants have upped their campaign of abductions since the Iraqi government announced the group’s defeat in December last year.
Militants have also carried out sporadic hit and run attacks and property thefts.
The province was liberated in 2016 by the Iraqi security forces, Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias, and a US-led coalition air campaign.
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