BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A security man was killed during an operation to arrest an international drug dealer in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement that a shootout erupted when the Iraqi anti-narcotics forces carried out an operation to arrest an international drug dealer, which resulted in the death of Hassan Abdul-Kadhim Jaafar, a member of the anti-narcotics directorate in Dhi Qar province, as the drug dealer was arrested.
The chaos and conflicts that have engulfed Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003 impeded successive Iraqi governments from effectively addressing the threat of drugs.
In May 2023, al-Sudani underlined the importance of waging "a war on drugs," saying that drug dealing remains one of the main ways of financing terrorism, and the circulation of drugs flourishes in the shadow of terrorism. ■
