BAGHDAD — The governor of Anbar, the country’s largest and westernmost province, has called for the Iraqi military to “go back to their bases” to enable the return of normality to the province. 

Gov. Mohamed al-Halbusi, a candidate for parliamentary speaker, said that police should resume control of all checkpoints in Anbar.

Despite relatively stable security in the Sunni-majority province — the last Iraqi province to have all its major towns liberated from the Islamic State (IS), in late 2017 — in recent weeks IS fighters have attacked checkpoints and infiltrated Iraqi territory only to be later killed by border police.

Some sources are wary of discussing other security incidents, especially ones involving non-local Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). One such incident, as witnessed by members of a local PMU in al-Qaim on Aug. 23, involved several individuals being handcuffed and blindfolded “after being arrested by Kataib Hezbollah.” During an interview with Al-Monitor in Erbil, a security official from the area received a phone call detailing the incident, but he declined to comment. Al-Monitor followed up with the security official, but he had no additional details on what exactly had occurred.