ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s interior ministry will soon take over security responsibilities in Anbar, Nineveh, and Salahaddin provinces, as part of a government plan to transfer control from the military to local police.

Interior ministry spokesperson Miqdad Miri on Thursday said that the ministry is preparing to take over security operations in the last four remaining provinces by the end of 2025, without providing specific details.

Alawi al-Bandawi, member of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee told The New Region that the interior ministry has already assumed control of security in several provinces, including Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Najaf, Wasit, Babil, and Diwaniyah, as well as overseeing security operations in Samarra and parts of Baghdad.

“In the coming period, the interior ministry will take over security responsibilities in Anbar, Nineveh, and Salahaddin,” Bandawi said. “This process will be gradual and carried out according to well-studied security, military and intelligence plans, demonstrating the ministry’s ability to handle security operations.”

Bandawi said the government aims to transfer security responsibilities from the military to the interior ministry to end the “militarization of cities.” He said the plan calls for the interior ministry to take over security in about 12 provinces by the end of the year.

In October, Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari announced during press conference in Nineveh that the province was prepared for the ministry to assume full security responsibilities from the Ministry of Defense and its affiliated forces.

“Nineveh is fully prepared to assume security responsibilities, but areas outside the cities and open spaces will remain under the control of military forces, including the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces,” Shammari said. “We have fully discussed this matter, and the transfer of responsibility will take place in the coming period.”

Shammari said the transition will be preceded by security measures such as installing surveillance cameras in city centers, strengthening local police forces, and expanding emergency response units to ensure stability.

After 2003, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, including the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), took control of security in the provinces following widespread instability, sectarian violence, and the rise of extremist groups.

The last major security crisis came in 2014 when ISIS seized Nineveh and large parts of Iraq. Since then, the government has gradually returned security responsibilities to the interior ministry and local police as stability has improved.