Babil Governor Ali Turki denied today, Tuesday, the validity of reports circulating about the existence of oil smuggling operations in the Jurf al-Nasr area, confirming that a surprise field visit revealed that the news was untrue.
Turki stated in a press statement followed by the News Video Agency, "We reviewed some social media pages and channels that reported on the existence of smuggling operations in the city of Nasir, and we made a surprise visit along with some media outlets to the specified location that we identified through the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the longitude and latitude that were clear in the image."
He explained that "this location is an old gas station named 'Al-Madina Al-Munawwara', and before we arrived, we made some calls and confirmed that there was no fluctuation in the existing pipes that do not even belong to the feeding network of the Al-Musayyib station, which is located outside the Nasir city area."
He added that "the station is old, and some of the tanks present there are old and have been left in the same place since before 2012, noting that this station was put back into operation about four years ago and is used by the federal police forces and the crowd forces present here to fuel their vehicles."
Turki pointed out that "all media outlets, whether social media or satellite channels, should be precise in conveying any information. We certainly know the targeting that occurs from time to time against the crowd forces and all the security forces present, especially in the city of Nasir, and I see that such matters are disgraceful."
He continued: "Our visit was unexpected, and we found only two young men working at the station, who explained to us the situation of the station and the number of tanks available, in addition to the internal tanks used for storing fuel when supplying through the pipeline network."
Media outlets had circulated Iraqi intelligence documents and reports, supported by satellite images, published in November 2026, concerning extensive and organized oil smuggling operations in the Jurf al-Sakhr (Jurf al-Nasr) area in Babil Governorate, which they said were managed by influential armed factions, specifically the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, which the governor denied.