BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- A senior Iraqi government adviser denied on Saturday that any specific deadline exists for the disarmament of anti-terror groups, even as the military spokesman declared that the September 30 end of the U.S.-led occupation’s mission will remove any justification for resistance groups to operate outside state control.
Qasim al-Araji, the prime minister’s security adviser, issued a statement denying that a firm timeline had been set for the committee tasked with bringing weapons under state control. 
“There is no specific deadline for completing the mission,” al-Araji said, adding that once the process is complete, anyone illegally carrying weapons will be “treated as a terrorist”.
The denial came shortly after Sabah al-Numan, spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, told the Iraqi News Agency that September 30 represents a “strategic turning point” marking the transition to full self-reliance in managing the country’s security file. 
He said the completion of national sovereignty “eliminates any pretext for movement outside state frameworks” and gives security institutions the legal and popular mandate to pursue crime and disarm unofficial weapons.
Al-Numan said the disarmament file will not be discussed during Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s upcoming visit to Washington for the UN General Assembly, describing it as a purely internal Iraqi sovereign matter.
The Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of anti-terror parties and militias, formed the committee to oversee the process. An Iraqi official close to al-Zaidi told The National that militias have not demonstrated intent to surrender their weapons, and that significant resistance remains.  
Two prominent groups, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali, along with Moqtada al-Sadr’s Saraya al-Salam faction, say they have placed their weapons under state authority. But others, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, have said they will not disarm until foreign troops leave.
As the debate continued, security sources reported that Daesh terrorists used improvised explosive devices to attack a power transmission tower on the Baiji-Haditha road in western Anbar province late Friday, putting the tower out of service. Security forces responded and secured the area.