Ministry of Defence (Iraq) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Republic of Iraq
Ministry of Defence

وزارة الدفاع
Department overview
Formed	1921; 103 years ago (1921)
Jurisdiction	Government of Iraq
Headquarters	Green Zone, Baghdad
Employees	188,000 (2024)
Annual budget	$4.1 Billion (2024)
Minister responsible	Thabet Al Abbasi
Website

The Ministry of Defence (Arabic: وزارة الدفاع العراقية) is the cabinet-level ministry responsible for defence in Iraq. It is also involved with internal security.

Authority

The Ministry directs all the Iraqi Armed Forces, comprising a Joint Headquarters, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (which controls the Army), the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Navy (including Marines), and the Iraqi Air Force.

History

The Ministry was dissolved by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 of mid-2003. It was formally re-established by CPA Order 67 of 21 March 2004. In the interim period, the CPA Office of Security Affairs served as the de facto Ministry of Defence.

The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau directs the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Command, which is a further military force answerable to the Prime Minister of Iraq directly. As of 30 June 2009, there had been legislation in progress for a year to make the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau a separate ministry.

Minister of defence

The position of Minister of Defence became vacant in the previous Iraqi cabinet, approved on 21 December 2010. While it was vacant, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki served as the acting defence minister. Saadoun al-Dulaimi later served as Minister of Defence from 2011 to 2014. Khaled al-Obaidi served as defence minister in the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Juma Inad served as defense minister from May 2020 to October of 2022 under the caretaker government of Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Thabet Muhammad Al-Abasi serves as the current minister of defense as of 2022.

The previous Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Abd al-Qadr Muhammed Jassim al-Obaidi, is a Sunni career military officer and political independent. He had limited experience and faced a number of hurdles impeding his effective governance. Some of the major problems included inheriting a staff that is notorious for favorism, corruption, and deeply divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. He was a rival of the former Minister of the Interior Jawad al-Bolani, National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubai, and Minister of Staff for National Security Affairs Shirwan al-Waili. He has been criticized for not being able to stand up to the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army members which dominate his own party. In addition, as a Sunni he faced inherent challenges working within a Shiite-dominated government.

On 19 September 2005, The Independent reported that approximately one billion US dollars have been stolen by top ranking officials from the Ministry of Defence including Hazim al-Shaalan and Ziyad Cattan.

Previous defence ministers under Saddam Hussein's regime included Ali Hassan al-Majid ('Chemical Ali'). Iraq's first minister of defence was Jafar al-Askari (1920–1922).

List of ministers of defence

Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1958)

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
	Jafar al-Askari		23 October 1920	16 November 1922			Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani
	Nuri as-Said		20 November 1922	2 August 1924
	Yasin al-Hashimi		2 August 1924	2 June 1925
	Nuri as-Said		26 June 1925	8 January 1928
	Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun		14 January 1928	20 January 1929
	Muhammad Amin Zaki		28 April 1929	25 August 1929
	Nuri al-Sa’id		19 September 1929	19 March 1930
	Jafar al-Askari		23 March 1930	27 October 1932
	Rashid al-Khawja		3 November 1932	18 March 1933
	Jalal Baban		20 March 1933	28 October 1933

Iraqi Republic (1958–1968)

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	President
	Abd al-Karim Qasim		14 July 1958	8 February 1963	Independent		Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i
	Salah Mahdi Ammash		8 February 1963	10 November 1963	Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)		Abdul Salam Arif
	Hardan al-Tikriti		10 November 1963	2 March 1964
	Tahir Yahya		2 March 1964	3 September 1965	Arab Socialist Union
	Arif Abd ar-Razzaq		6 September 1965	16 September 1965	Arab Socialist Union
	Abd al-'Aziz al-'Uqaili		21 September 1965	18 April 1966
	Shakir Mahmud Shukri		18 April 1966	17 July 1968			Abdul Rahman Arif

Ba'athist Iraq (1968–2003)

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	President
	Ibrahim Abdel Rahman Dawoud		17 July 1968	30 July 1968	Independent		Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
	Hardan al-Tikriti		30 July 1968	April 1970	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Hammad Shihab		April 1970	30 June 1973	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Abdullah al-Khadduri (acting)		30 June 1973	11 November 1974	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr		11 November 1974	15 October 1977	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Adnan Khairallah		15 October 1977	4 May 1989	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)		Saddam Hussein
	Abdul Jabbar Khalil Shanshal		4 May 1989	1990	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Saadi Toma		12 December 1990	6 April 1991	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Ali Hassan al-Majid		1991	1995	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Sultan Hashim		1995	2003	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)

Republic of Iraq (2004–present)

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
	Ali Allawi		April 2004	June 2004	Independent		Ayad Allawi
	Hazim al-Shaalan		June 2004	1 June 2005	Iraqi National Congress
	Saadoun al-Dulaimi		1 June 2005	6 March 2006	Independent		Ibrahim al-Jaafari
	Qadir Obeidi		6 March 2006	21 December 2010	Independent		Nouri al-Maliki
	Nouri al-Maliki		21 December 2010	17 August 2011	State of Law Coalition
	Saadoun al-Dulaimi		17 August 2011	18 October 2014	Unity Alliance of Iraq
	Khaled al-Obaidi		18 October 2014	19 August 2016	Unity Alliance of Iraq		Haider al-Abadi
	Othman al-Ghanmi (interim)		19 August 2016	30 January 2017	State of Law Coalition
	Erfan al-Hiyali		30 January 2017	24 June 2019	State of Law Coalition
	Najah al-Shammari		24 June 2019	6 May 2020			Adil Abdul-Mahdi
	Juma Inad		6 May 2020	27 October 2022	Independent		Mustafa Al-Kadhimi
	Thabit Al Abassi		27 October 2022	Incumbent			Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani