The Iraqi government has shut down TV broadcaster Alhurra's offices in the country and suspended its license after it aired a report some describe as investigative journalism and others claim was a US-engineered attack on Iraq's religious institutions.

Alhurra is a US government-funded, Arabic-language satellite broadcaster based in the United States. In late August, it ran an investigative piece alleging corruption within Iraq's Sunni and Shiite religious endowments. The report, "Religious Corruption in Iraq," talked of out-of-control institutions that hide under shrine's domes and religious turbans.

The result was widespread outrage among Iraq’s religious authorities and politicians, prompting the government to close the station's local offices beginning Sept. 2 for three months. Some observers see the story as related to ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran and Iraq's concerns of being caught in the middle.

Alahad TV, a local satellite channel owned by the Shiite paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), called the report part of Washington's alleged soft war against Iraqis. AAH reported the United States is attacking the cohesion between religion and society and supporting social media "puppets." AAH, which is funded by Iran and one faction of Iraq's Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units, even claims Washington established the Islamic State to destroy Iraq.