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Iraq

August 28, 2026

Baghdad 9:30 pm

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Iraq summons Iran envoy over 'Persian Gulf' post, Baghdad name origins: What to know

The move comes amid heightened tensions in the region, including over the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the controversially referenced gulf to the Arabian Sea.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi delivers a speech in Baghdad, May 16, 2026.

Exclusive

Iraq's Zaidi set to make European debut with Macron in France

The Iraqi prime minister is expected to sign several memorandums of understanding with France during his Sept. 14 meeting with Macron as Baghdad seeks to diversify its diplomatic and security ties.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Oil falls 1.8% as traders await 'toughest' sanctions on Iran

Leon Neal/Getty Images

Iraq’s Zaidi doubles down on militia disarmament, boosting oil exports

Zaidi

Interview

Barzani calls for enhanced air defense for Kurdistan Region to counter drone attacks

Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, gives a press conference in the autonomous region's capital Arbil on June 25, 2025.

Masrour Barzani

Masrour Barzani

KRG Prime Minister

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Suadad al-Salhy

In Baghdad, reporting on politics and security

Lyse Mauvais

In Amman, reporting on humanitarian crises

Winthrop Rodgers

In Sulaymaniyah, reporting on Kurdish issues

This photo taken during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State shows US soldiers clearing rubble at Ain al-Asad military air base, Anbar province, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2020.

Islamic State uses hit-and-run tactics in Iraq

Islamic State cells continue to target Sunni areas while armed groups thought to be close to Iran step up attacks on facilities hosting international coalition forces.

Shahmardnan Amirov, the project co-director, at work on the sounding with the Iraqi official representative Amjad Neama.

Archaeological digs unearths new details of 4,000-year-old city in Iraq

An Iraqi-Russian team accomplished the first soundings of a previously unexcavated ancient settlement about 4,000 years old in Iraq's Dhi Qar governorate.

An Iraqi man works at a generator subscription distribution room in Sadr City, east of the capital, Baghdad, on July 2, 2021.

Iraq invests in clean energy

Iraq is investing in clean energy to produce electricity, especially solar energy, which is almost available throughout the year in various regions of the country.

pmu march in baghdad

The Takeaway: Does Iran want to scuttle nuclear deal talks with militia attacks in Iraq?

Also: Fresh reporting from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Gaza; high oil prices may undercut GCC reforms; a cure for termites in Egypt; and more.

AYMAN HENNA/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi government calls militia's attack on US base terrorism

Militia attacks on US bases in Iraq have risen and the government is beginning to treat them as terror groups.

A picture taken on January 13, 2020, during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State, shows a bulldozer clearing debris from Ain al-Asad military air base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Militias launch spate of attacks on US positions in Iraq

Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base was hit with the second rocket attack in just over 48 hours.

land near Baghdad airport

Iraq plans new city next to capital

In order to find solutions to the chaos in Baghdad due to overpopulation, the Iraqi government plans to launch a new city next to the capital.

Iraqi riot police protect the Turkish embassy in Baghdad on Feb. 18, 2021 after calls on social media to gather outside the Turkish embassy to protest Turkey's vows to invade the northwestern enclave of Sinjar.

Turkey’s anti-PKK assault leaves Kurds more divided

Turkey’s unremitting assault against the PKK is destabilizing Iraqi Kurdistan, weakening the rebels on the one hand while bolstering support for them among disaffected locals on the other.

A picture taken on January 13, 2020, during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State, shows a view of the damage at Ain al-Asad military air base housing US and other foreign troops in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Pro-Iran militias increase attacks, rhetoric against foreign troops

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has called on the United States and Iran "to avoid settling scores in Iraq."

This picture taken during a press tour organized by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State shows a bulldozer clearing debris from Ain al-Asad military air base in the western province of Anbar, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2020.

US Embassy, Ain al-Asad base targeted in Iraq as militias up tension

Following the US strike on militias' bases last week, the US Embassy and Ain al-Asad base were targeted by a drone and rockets.

The sun sets behind electrical grids in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in the Dhi Qar province, on Jan. 3, 2021.

Islamic State suspected of sabotaging Iraqi electrical towers

Power transmission towers have recently been targeted in Iraq, which already is suffering from major electricity shortages.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks to AFP about the strikes on two major Saudi oil facilities that were claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels but which both Washington and Riyadh have blamed on Tehran, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sept. 16, 2019.

Iraq to enhance cooperation with NATO

As Iraq aims to rebuild its security institutions, the cooperation with NATO increases.