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

Iran cover image

Iraq

August 9, 2026

Baghdad 2:00 am

36°C

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Damascus, Aug. 3, 2026. IKRPresident/X

Iraqi Kurdish president’s meeting with Syria’s Sharaa signals shift in SDF dynamics

KRG President Nechirvan Barzani’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa underscored the Kurdistan Region’s growing role in Syria’s Kurdish politics.

Mourners carry one of the bodies of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) who were killed earlier in Diyala in central Iraq by US-Saudi strikes, during the funeral in Baghdad on July 29, 2026. The US-Saudi strikes killed at least 20 militants, including Iranians, according to the Hashed al-Shaabi. The US and Saudi Arabia said the strikes were in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities. (Photo by murtadha ridha / AFP via Getty Images) /

Analysis

Renewed Iraq attacks test Zaidi’s push to disarm Iran-backed militias

An attempt by Iraqi government forces to seize weapons belonging to an Iranian-backed faction encountered resistance, raising questions about Prime Minister Ali Zaidi’s pledge to disarm militias by Sept. 30.

Mustafa Salim

By Mustafa Salim

Latest News

Analysis

Iran-linked militias seek to draw Iraq into regional war

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.

Week in Review

By Week in Review

Exclusive

US nears full withdrawal from Iraq as bases in Kurdistan Region face attacks from Iran, proxies

Patriot

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Zaidi cancels Riyadh trip after US-Saudi strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at a Council of Ministers meeting in Baghdad, July 25, 2026.

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

People surf the Internet at an Internet cafe in Baghdad November 11, 2012. Iraqi telecommunications operators have warned that government plans to charge for the extra spectrum which they need to launch long-awaited 3G services could slow Internet adoption and economic growth. Picture taken November 11, 2012. To match story IRAQ-TELECOMS/ REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY) - RTR3ADY5

Iraqis turn to social media for IS coverage

Iraqis are shunning broadcast and print media in favor of social networking sites to spread and follow news about the fighting against the Islamic State.

Iraqis inspect the destruction caused by an explosion at the entrance of a monastery in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 06 January 2008. Bombs exploded today outside two churches and a monastery in Mosul, wounding four people and slightly damaging the buildings, police said. AFP PHOTO/MUJAHED MOHAMMED (Photo credit should read MUJAHED MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)

Ninevah monastery hopes for liberation

Past regular visitors to St. George's Monastery, north of Mosul, have been saddened and horrified by the acts of destruction by Islamic State members at the site.

A billboard is seen as smoke rises from a clash with Islamic State militants in the town of al-Alam March 9, 2015. Just north of Tikrit, home city of executed Sunni former president Saddam Hussein, Iraqi security forces and Shi?ite militia fighters began an offensive to regain control over the town of al-Alam. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR4SNWP

Iraq's Rambo fights against IS

An Iraqi fighter who goes by the name "Abu Azrael" has been made into a legendary, fierce Shiite fighter by the Iraqi media in its coverage of the battle against the Islamic State.

Syrian women walk along an agriculture field after finishing their work in the Lebanese village of Ammiq in west Bekaa March 2, 2015. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT AGRICULTURE) - RTR4RSZD

Al-Monitor highlights diversity of Islamic feminism

Al-Monitor’s monthlong series on women concludes; Lebanese foreign minister appeals to UN Security Council for protection of Christians; members of Congress seek "formal dialogue" on future of Turkish democracy; the fault lines in Aleppo; have Israeli elections sparked long-stalled Palestinian reconciliation?; Ali Hashem profiles self-proclaimed Islamic State Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Saddam Hussein speaks to the Presiding Judge Rizgur Ameen Hana Al-Saedi as his trial begins in a heavily fortified courthouse in Baghdad's Green Zone October 19, 2005. Behind Saddam on his immediate right is Awad Hamad al-Badar, while in the second row are (R to L) Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid and Taha Yassin Ramadan. In the third row are (R to L) Ali Dayim Ali, Mohammed Azawi. A defiant Saddam went on trial on Wednesday for crimes against humanity over the killing of more than 140 Shi'ites more than two decade

Saddam Hussein's tomb haunts Tikrit residents

Iraqis have been obsessing about Saddam Hussein’s body and the fate of his legacy.

Iraq's army chief General Babakir Zebari (R) meets with U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the defence ministry in Baghdad November 15, 2014. The top U.S. military officer, Dempsey, arrived on Saturday in Baghdad on an unannounced visit as U.S. commanders prepare to expand American assistance to Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR4E9AP

Iraq accepts international support in its war against IS

Iraqis should dismiss criticism against the US role in the war against the Islamic State, because this war is international and the country needs any help it can get, whether foreign or local.

Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) leaves a Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington August 1, 2014. A bill to fund border security blew up in House Speaker John Boehner's face on Thursday, leaving Republicans in disarray and struggling to reconcile Tea Party demands with the need to deal with a humanitarian crisis on the southwestern border with Mexico. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION) - RTR40XQR

Will Congress arm Iraqi Kurds?

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel is lining up support for his bid to bypass Baghdad.

Residents buy vegetables in a market in Baghdad's Karrada district August 14, 2012. Iraq relies on imports from neighbours like Syria, Turkey and Iran for 95 percent of its consumer goods. Syria in particular is a key supplier of manufactured goods, fresh vegetables and fruit. But as an uprising there against President Bashar al-Assad grinds through its 17th month, the supply of Syrian goods to Iraq is slowly drying up as Syrian businesses are forced to close and trucks struggle to cross borders that have s

Imported goods crowd out local production in Iraq

Flooded with imported goods, the Iraqi market is grappling with a serious lack of local products, due to the displacement of farmers, lack in government control and almost absent support for the domestic industry.

Fighters from the Shi'ite Badr Brigade militia stand near their flag as they guard at a checkpoint along a highway recently taken from militants of the Islamic State, outside the town of Sulaiman Pek September 5, 2014. The highway, which continues south to Baghdad, is now controlled by Shi'ite militia fighters and the Kurdish Peshmerga. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR454AO

Is the Shiite revival here?

Iran's support of religiously motivated forces in the Middle East has been viewed by many as a success while Saudi Arabia has struggled to find find reliable proxies.

Shi'ite fighters known as Hashid Shaabi walk as smoke rises from an explosives-laden military vehicle driven by an Islamic State suicide bomber which exploded during an attack on the southern edge of Tikrit March 12, 2015. Iraqi security forces and mainly Shi'ite militia exchanged fire sporadically with Islamic State fighters in Tikrit on Thursday, a day after they pushed into Saddam Hussein's home city in their biggest offensive yet against the militants. A Reuters photographer saw one car bomb explode on

PM Barzani: Shiite militias should be regulated

In an interview with Al-Monitor, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani addresses the fight against IS, the rise of the Iraqi Shiite militias and relations with Baghdad.

A police officer stands guard in front of the Bardo Museum in Tunis March 24, 2015. The national museum reopened on Tuesday, almost a week after a militant attack which killed 20 foreign visitors. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi - RTR4UMIW

The Islamic State in Africa

The Islamic State presence in the depth of the African continent was strengthened after Nigerian movement Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the terrorist group.

Shi'ite fighters chant slogans as they advance into the town of Tal Ksaiba, near the town of al-Alam, March 7, 2015. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT)

Thaier Al-Sudani: "It was me and a few other Iraqi journalists working for local outlets. We went to the frontlines in coordination with the Iraqi government forces and supporting militias.

The press officer would come in the morning and take us to the frontline in a convoy.

Whenever an area was won from Islamic Sta

Iran wages psychological war against IS

Iran is waging a psychological war against the Islamic State in Iraq, promoting and highlighting the prominent role of Iraqi fighters among the country's paramilitary groups.