ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq's interior ministry on Saturday said that over 600 tribal sheikhs have worked with authorities to register the weapons belonging to their tribespeople, coming as Baghdad continues to pursue its ambitions to restrict arms to the hands of the state.

Illegal weapons in Iraq stand out as one of the most pressing challenges to security and stability, with Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi having made clamping down on weapons proliferation a cornerstone of his governmental agenda.

Unofficial data puts the number of arms within the Iraqi society at around 15 million medium and light weapons, with armed groups, including pro-Iran militias, and tribes possessing the bulk of them.

"There is a broad response from tribal sheikhs to the issue of restricting weapons, as more than 600 tribal sheikhs have opened their guest houses and cooperated with the ministry’s detachments to register the weapons of their tribesmen," an interior ministry spokesperson Major General Miqdad Miri told Iraqi state media, noting that the Rusafa area of Baghdad has seen the highest registration rate.

As of July, the federal government had registered roughly six million firearms as part of the initiative.

"The government's direction is clear and politically and security-wise decided that all weapons in the country should be under the authority of the state and its security apparatus," Miri continued.

"The ministry is currently working within the organizational phase, which includes registering and inventorying weapons, and is scheduled to end on December 31, 2026, after which a new phase will begin in accordance with the decisions that will be issued by the government, considering the ministry as an executive body."

Baghdad has also set a deadline of the end of September for militias in the country to disarm, coming after strikes by Iran-aligned armed groups on neighboring countries have caused diplomatic embarrassment and retaliatory strikes on Iraqi soil.

On July 29, Saudi Arabia and the US conducted joint airstrikes across Iraq targeting bases of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is state-sanctioned but contains many factions that operate at the behest of Iran.

An Iraqi parliamentary fact-finding committee said it has received “confirmed information” that Zaidi held an emergency meeting with security officials, including Popular Mobilization Commission (PMC) chief Falih al-Fayyadh, three hours before the US-Saudi attack began, informing them about the incoming strikes and calling on them to "take precautions and evacuate the headquarters."

However, the failure to disseminate the foreknowledge of the strikes to the rank-and-file PMF members resulted in at least 20 members of the umbrella organization being killed in the bombardment.