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Iraq

August 9, 2026

Baghdad 4:12 am

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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

A member of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces stands guard at a security point on Bashiqa mountain, overlooking Islamic State held territories of Mosul, 12 km northeast of Mosul City, March 7, 2015. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT) - RTR4SF1J

Turkey to support Mosul operation from sidelines

Turkey will provide assistance to the forces organizing to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, but will not engage directly in military conflict.

TO GO WITH STORY BY ARTHUR MACMILLAN
A Bangladeshi worker cleans a table at a Baghdad restaurant on April 04, 2009. Bangladeshis seeking to escape poverty back home have high hopes Baghdad will offer hard cash and prospects for a better life.
AFP PHOTO / ALI YUSSEF (Photo credit should read ALI YUSSEF/AFP/Getty Images)

Iraq's illegal employment agencies

Unregistered recruitment agencies in Iraq bring Asian laborers to work long hours and for wages lower than what Iraqis demand.

A Palestinian girl recites Koran to her teacher during a Koran memorization lesson on the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque in Gaza City June 29, 2014.REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY EDUCATION) - RTR3W9WR

Can you be an Islamist and a feminist?

Feminists and others in the West intent on "liberating" the women of the Muslim world fail to recognize a brand of Islamist feminism demanding public and private space for women to contribute to society.

Shi'ite fighters gather with their weapons next to a sign 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 against Islamic State to regain control over the town of al-Alam. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR4SOF4

Lawmakers see Iran's rise as key concern in fight against IS

Republicans focus on Tehran in first hearing since Tikrit offensive.

Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against predominantly Sunni militants, carry weapons and a portrait of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani during a parade in the streets in Baghdad's Sadr city June 14, 2014. An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counter-attacks, easing pressure on the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL

Will Sistani be able to control popular mobilization forces?

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has distanced himself from politics, while stressing the need for the Iraqi government to build a strong state in which all sects feel equal.

Syrian writer and journalist Samar Yazbek poses on September 26, 2014 in Paris. AFP PHOTO JOEL SAGET (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

10 Middle Eastern writers you should know

These 10 female writers are challenging conceptions of women in the Middle East.

A man walks past a poster, commemorating Shi'ite fighters who were killed in battles with Islamic State militants, at Tahrir Square in Baghdad February 7, 2015. Baghdad residents commended a decision by Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to end their city's nightime curfew on Saturday. Some form of curfew has been in place since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, hindering commercial and civilian movement. The midnight (2100 GMT) to 5 a.m. curfew has been in place for more than seven

Iraq needs justice, not revenge

Iraq needs to move away from the mindset of revenge to the mindset of restorative justice.

Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud at Diriyah Farm in Diriyah March 5, 2015. Kerry met Gulf Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh on Thursday to brief them on progress in the nuclear talks with Iran and offer reassurance that any deal would not damage their interests. Kerry arrived in Riyadh late on Wednesday from Montreux, Switzerland, where he said he had made progress in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that aim to conclude an atomic deal b

Saudi Arabia prepares for Iran nuclear deal

Saudi Arabia has been pulling out the diplomatic stops in an effort to contain Iran in anticipation of what it sees as an unfavorable nuclear deal between the West and the Islamic republic.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) (L), along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (R), speaks at a news conference after the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 3, 2015. The White House has said President Barack Obama would veto the Iran Nuclear Review Act, which was introduced by Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel, to require Obama to

Senate seeks to unblock path for war on Islamic State

A look at the Middle East issues Congress will address the week of March 9.

A Shi'ite fighter rides a motorbike in the town of Hamrin in Salahuddin province March 5, 2015. As Iraqi forces close in, Tikrit's few remaining civilians are cutting up white clothes and fabric to make flags of surrender, fearing their Shi'ite liberators more than the Islamic State militants occupying the Sunni city. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR4S8Q5

Battle for Tikrit highlights challenges of war on IS

While the Iraqi army has made some progress on the ground in its battle to liberate Tikrit from Islamic State (IS) forces, the war against IS will not be fully resolved until all concerned parties come together with a unified strategic plan.

Shi'ite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), take part in weapons training in Najaf, July 18, 2014. The United Nations accused Islamic State fighters in Iraq of executions, rape and forced recruitment of children during a campaign to seize much of northern Iraq, part of a conflict it said has killed almost 5,600 civilians this year. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marj

Militarization of Iraqi society is intensifying

The fight against the Islamic State is leading increasing numbers of civilians to take up arms and defend their territory.

Protesters hold up Iraqi flags and pictures of their relatives who were killed during the Saddam era in a rally against the return of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad February 10, 2010. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR2A18M

Iraqi provinces take ex-Baathists to court

Iraq's de-Baathification law has been a matter of controversy since its adoption in 2003, as some argue that the firm measures against former Baathists led to terrorism.