New commander takes charge of Baghdad’s ‘Green Zone’ security

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Maj. Gen. Staff Special Forces Osama Abd Tarish officially assumed command of Iraq’s Special Division, responsible for protecting Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses key Iraqi government institutions and foreign embassies, a security source told Shafaq News on Friday.

The division also protects sovereign institutions, government facilities and senior state officials.

On July 23, Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Ali Al-Zaidi assigned Brig. Gen. Osama Saad Hassan to lead the division after Lt. Gen. Mohammed Qasim Al-Fahd moved to command the Federal Police. Al-Zaidi has also reshuffled senior posts across the Defense Ministry and Iraqi Army and reactivated the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the Green Zone under former Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari.