ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least five people were killed and 11 others injured on Tuesday night in Iraq’s southern Diwaniyah province during an altercation at a wedding party that escalated into an armed incident, local police announced.
Following the lethal clash, 12 people were arrested in connection with the incident, which occurred in the al-Shanafiyah area, Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad.
“A personal dispute occurred between a number of relatives (cousins) while they were at a guesthouse… where it began with a verbal altercation and then developed into the use of weapons,” Diwaniyah Police Command said in a statement.
The Diwaniyah Police Command detailed that they seized “a number of weapons" from the scene of the incident.
Tribal conflicts have expanded in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, especially in the central and southern regions, prompting successive governments to include tribes in the political process.
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After 2003, the proliferation of weapons endowed tribes with more strength due to the variety of light, medium, and heavy weapons in their possession.
Illegal weapons in Iraq stand out as one of the most pressing challenges to security and stability, with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani repeatedly pledging to address the issue in his government program.
Unofficial data puts the number of small arms within Iraqi society at around 15 million.
Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior currently runs a campaign to buy medium-range weapons from the public as part of the government’s efforts to limit civilian firearm ownership while continuing a nationwide process for registering arms owned by civilians until the end of this year.
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