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

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Iraq

March 28, 2026

Baghdad 5:47 am

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A handing over of command ceremony at Union III Camp in the Green Zone of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on May 22, 2025.

Turkey confirms Iraq troop withdrawal as NATO pulls back due to Iran war

The confirmation of the withdrawal came as part of NATO’s decision to withdraw its forces in its Iraq mission amid Iran war.

An Iranian Kurdish peshmerga member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran inspects the damage sustained at the Azadi Camp following an Iranian cross-border attack in the town of Koye, east of Erbil district, on March 3, 2026.

Analysis

Iran's first strike on Iraqi Kurdish forces since war began a warning to US allies

The deadly strike on Kurdish forces underscores Tehran’s readiness to pressure US partners as Erbil is caught between Iran, Baghdad and Washington.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

A view of the oil refinery on March 17, 2026 in Erbil, Iraq.

Exclusive

Iraqi oil flows to Turkey after US pledges role in Baghdad-Kurds customs dispute

A US-brokered breakthrough between Baghdad and Erbil has restarted Iraqi oil exports through Turkey after a weeklong standoff.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

A picture shows smoke billowing from the Central Production Facility 1 gas refinery in Iraq's southern Maysan province on May 29, 2022.

Exclusive

Dana Gas evacuates Khor Mor staff in Iraq's Kurdistan Region after Iran threats

Tehran has warned it will target Gulf oil and gas facilities following Israel's strike on South Pars.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

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

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

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

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Interview

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

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.

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

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

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 tank is pictured as Iraqi security forces patrol after clashes with militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the Hamrin mountains in Diyala province July 16, 2014. The Iraqi army and allied Shi'ite militia forces are trying to push back the Sunni insurgents of the al Qaeda offshoot, who swept through northern Iraq last month to within 70 km (45 miles) of Baghdad. Picture taken July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS C

Iraq's unified 'National Guard' may be impossible

Iraq's prime minister has proposed the formation of a National Guard that would unify the ranks of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish forces.

Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (L) and Iraqi President Fouad Massoum speak during the session to approve the new government in Baghdad, September 8, 2014. Iraq's parliament approved a new government headed by Haider al-Abadi as prime minister on Monday night, in a bid to rescue Iraq from collapse, with sectarianism and Arab-Kurdish tensions on the rise. REUTERS/Hadi Mizban/Pool (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR45G2Z

Iraqi Kurds unhappy partners in Abadi's government

The Kurdish position in internal Iraqi politics has been weakened by the fight with the Islamic State, resulting in a new Iraqi government that largely ignores their demands.

A man rides his bicycle along a street filled with debris in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus September 10, 2014. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR45MM4

Obama needs peace in Syria to defeat IS

Syria’s internal opposition says defeating the Islamic State is impossible without finding a solution to Syria’s civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pose before a meeting in Ankara September 12, 2014. Kerry will meet Cavusoglu, as well as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Tayyip Erdogan during his two-day visit to the capital Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR45Z0L

Turkey rows against the tide

Ideological assumptions based on Islamist and Sunni sympathies, as well as a series of bad judgments, leave Turkey with diminished influence in a region where it once hoped to play a leadership role.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington September 10, 2014. President Barack Obama called Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Wednesday ahead of an evening speech in which the U.S. leader plans to lay out his strategy for defeating the militant group Islamic State, the White House said. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR45PEQ

Israel skeptical about US strategy on IS

While the US finds a new interlocutor in Israel's opposition leader, the Israeli security establishment is not reassured by President Barack Obama's latest speech, since it fears that much like Hamas, the Islamic State cannot be defeated by airstrikes alone.

Members of the new Iraqi cabinet attend a parliamentary session to vote on Iraq's new government at the parliament headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, September 8, 2014. Iraq's parliament approved a new government headed by Haider al-Abadi as prime minister on Monday night, in a bid to rescue Iraq from collapse, with sectarianism and Arab-Kurdish tensions on the rise. Picture taken September 8, 2014. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR45I2V

Abadi's new government will face challenges

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the formation of the new Iraqi government and vowed to answer the demands put forth by political blocs.

Hezbollah supporters wave Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags as they listen to their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressing his supporters during a rally to mark "Quds (Jerusalem) Day" in Beirut's southern suburbs July 25, 2014. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION) - RTR4056R

Hezbollah parliamentarian: We will defend Lebanon from IS

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said Lebanon was under direct threat from the Islamic State and that Hezbollah stood ready to confront it.

Members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) ride armoured personnel carriers (APCs) past Israel soldiers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, before crossing into Syria August 31, 2014. The head of the Fijian army said on Sunday negotiations for the release of 44 soldiers seized by an al Qaeda-linked group on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were being pursued but he worried there had been no word on where his men are being held. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLIC

US-Iran cooperation on IS makes Israel uneasy

Although Israel is increasingly uneasy about the possibility of US-Iran cooperation in fighting the Islamic State, Israeli security officials say the emergence of a regional Islamic caliphate would be a strategic disaster.

Residents shop for books at Mutanabi Street in Baghdad April 18, 2014. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTR3LSX2

Modern-day 'cultural Sinbad' spreads literature across Iraq

Star Mohsen Ali is unique in his travels across Iraq's provinces to sell and promote books to a generation increasingly thirsty for literature.

Lebanese army soldier Ibrahim Moustafa Shaaban, who was captured by Islamist militants in Arsal, gestures upon his arrival in Al-Mohamara village after his release, in Akkar August 31, 2014. Islamist Nusra Front, a group linked to al Qaeda, on Saturday released four Sunni soldiers and a Sunni policeman whom they captured earlier this month, including Shaaban, a source close to the group said. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. REUTERS/Stringer (LEBANON - Tags: CIVIL UNREST TPX IM

New jihadist generation in Lebanon

With the latest security clashes between Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra members and the Lebanese army, it seems that Salafism is shifting its priorities to Lebanon.

U.S. President Barack Obama listens as he hosts a bilateral meeting with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan during the NATO Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales September 5, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED KINGDOM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR453P4

Is Turkey the weakest link in anti-IS coalition?

Held back by political weaknesses and ideological constraints, Ankara is likely to be the weakest and most reluctant member of the planned coalition against the Islamic State.

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, wait for aid at an abandoned building that they are using as their main residence, outside the city of Dohuk August 25, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR43PC3

Iraqi clerics show support for minorities

Iraqi clerics are showing wide support for historically persecuted minorities and working to dismantle the foundations of extremist ideology.