Iraq - AL-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

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Iraq

March 17, 2026

Baghdad 8:26 am

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An Iraqi oil tanker waits at the Khawr Abd Allah canal leading up to Al-Faw port in southern Iraq, on June 6, 2024.

Desperate to sell its oil, Iraq turns to Turkey amid standoff with Kurds

As Iraq looks to reroute oil to Turkey, Baghdad is also using the plan to push the Iraqi Kurds to greenlight exports through their territory.

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

CENTCOM: Six killed after US refueling tanker aircraft crashes in Iraq

The KC-135 is the fourth American military aircraft downed since the war against Iran began.

Retired Israeli general and executive director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies Amos Yadlin attends a session at the Manama Dialogue security conference in the Bahraini capital, on Dec. 5, 2020.

Interview

Yadlin: Israel's war goal to weaken Iran, not immediate regime change

Israeli leaders are aware that Washington will decide when the war ends whether or not Israel has achieved its war aims, Yadlin told Al-Monitor.

Commercial vessels are pictured offshore in Dubai on March 11, 2026. AFP via Getty Images

Oil jumps above $100 as energy crisis called worst in history: What to know

The latest spike is the second time in a week that oil prices have climbed above $100 a barrel.

Latest News

US warns of kidnapping threat in Iraq as Iran-backed militia hits diplomatic facility

Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on Dec. 4, 2023.

Exclusive

Baghdad, US turn to Iraqi Kurds for oil exports as Iran war hits supplies

The sun sets behind burning gas flares at the Dora Oil Refinery Complex in Baghdad on Nov. 24, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Why Israel's looking to Kurds to make gains against Iran regime

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with PAK train on Jan. 18, 2026, near Erbil, Iraq.

Analysis

CIA, Mossad bolster Iran’s Kurds as US, Israel seek to ignite military revolt

Osama Al Maqdoni / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

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

IS remains a threat in Iraqi desert, tribal villages

Popular Mobilization Units are conducting regular patrols in the Iraqi desert to prevent activity by Islamic State sleeper cells.

Oil installations hit by protests in southern Iraq

The wave of protests in the southern province of Basra is escalating, even as the government promises to improve the status of the province in order to calm the street.

'Snake man of Baghdad' spreads love for wild animals

Wildlife lover and environmental activist Mahdi Laith says his mission in life is to change Iraqi attitudes toward the country's many exotic species.

Turkeys Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) and his wife Sare Davutoglu (L), welcome freed Turkey's Consul in Mosul Ozturk Yilmaz (R) and dozens of other freed Turkish nationals hostages held by Islamist militants in northern Iraq for more than three months, on September 20, 2014 at the Esenboga Airport in Ankara. Fighters from the Islamic State (IS) kidnapped 46 Turks including diplomats, children and special forces from the Turkish consulate in Mosul and 3 Iraqis on June 11 as they captured swathes of nort

What's behind Turkey's rush to reopen Iraqi consulates?

Turkey's consulate in Mosul has been closed since the building was seized by Islamic State militants in June 2014, but now Ankara is looking to make a comeback in its southeastern neighbor.

Billion dollar debt, heat wave push Iran to cut electricity to Iraq

Iran has cut off electricity supplies to Iraq amid increased consumption during a hot spell and reports of massive accrued debt by Baghdad, sparking a wave of protests in central and southern Iraqi regions.

Why many Iraqi Kurds keep tradition of cockfighting alive

Cockfighting in Iraq still provides many men with a nightly escape despite the efforts of animal welfare activists to ban blood sports.

Iraqi Kurdistan's Movement for Change faces rebellion from within

The Gorran movement is facing accusations of nepotism, as the two sons of the movement’s founder have gained ownership of its financial assets.

Drought forces Iraq to abandon cultivation of crops

Due to the acute shortage of irrigation water, Iraq is reducing the cultivation of large areas of land and preventing the cultivation of strategic crops that are a source of livelihood for farmers, such as rice and corn.

A general view of the mountains next to the town of Suleimaniya, some 330 km north of Iraqi capital Baghdad, January 31, 2004. North of the bombs and the chaos, the Kurdish city of Suleimaniya is worlds apart from the Iraq that dominates the headlines. Shops with bright neon signs and sharp window displays line wide, clean streets; traffic lights flash red and green; women walk unveiled through the city. At night the trees are hung with colored light bulbs, the restaurants full of diners. TO GO WITH STORY I

Fires and armed conflict take toll on Kurdish flora, fauna

The mountains of Iraq's Kurdistan region are threatened by man-made and natural wildfires that are difficult to control because of a lack of firefighting resources and manpower.

TOPSHOT - Kirkuk provincial Governor, Najm al-Din Karim (C), walks on October 22, 2016 alongside police and Kurdish security forces as he visits the damaged sites where fighting against Islamic State (IS) jihadists took place in the centre the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk.
Security forces battled for a second day with Islamic State gunmen who infiltrated Kirkuk in a brazen raid that rattled Iraq as it ramped up an offensive to retake Mosul. / AFP / Marwan IBRAHIM (Photo credit should read MARWAN

Islamic State awakens sleeper cells in Iraq's Kirkuk

The Islamic State is gradually rekindling its terrorist activities in Iraq through sleeper cells in Kirkuk province, where security is already stretched thin by political unrest.

Border calm precarious as Iraq's Anbar revives, slowly

An airstrike on militias raises tension across the border in Syria, while Qaim, Iraq, is reviving gradually after years of being under control of terrorist groups.

Mourners attend the funeral of the security men who were kidnapped and killed by Islamic State militants, in Kerbala, Iraq June 28, 2018. REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani - RC18ED3C92D0

IS killings and kidnappings in central Iraq raise questions

The desert area west of Salahuddin and other depopulated areas have faced a spate of kidnappings and killings claimed by the Islamic State.