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Iraq

August 10, 2026

Baghdad 8:32 am

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a worker inspects an oil field in Iraq

Analysis

How Turkey is deepening energy and economic ties with Iraq as Iran weakens

Turkey and Iraq are accelerating energy, infrastructure and trade cooperation as the Hormuz crisis increases the strategic value of northern export routes.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

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.

Latest News

Analysis

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

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) /

Mustafa Salim

By Mustafa Salim

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

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

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (R) greets the audience as he and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul arrive at a meeting in Ankara June 10, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3T167

Will Turkey and Iran find common ground in Iraq?

Developments in Iraq, coming soon after a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Turkey, might be forcing a change in Turkey's approach to jihadist groups.

Residents gather to protest near the house of prominent Sunni Muslim lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani, in the centre of Ramadi, December 29, 2013. Iraqi security forces arrested Alwani in a raid on his home in the western province of Anbar, sparking clashes in which at least five people were killed, police sources said. Picture taken December 29, 2013. REUTERS/Ali al-Mashhadani (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX16X7M

Iraq’s Sunni divide may be too great

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki never implemented promised reforms to integrate and share power with Iraq’s Sunni communities.

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul, June 12, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (I

Turkey paying price for jihadist highway on border

The hostage crisis in Mosul is the boomerang effect of Ankara’s policy of opening its borders to jihadists.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Iraq from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington June 13, 2014. Obama said on Friday he will take several days to review options for how the United States can help Iraq deal with a militant insurgency, saying any action would need significant involvement by Iraq itself. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNTIED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3TNFS

Israelis ask whether Obama has given up on Iraq

The crisis in Iraq has only sharpened the perception by Israelis that Barack Obama is now willing to act with resolve in the Middle East.

Mouaz al-Khatib, Former President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces speaks during the 11th US-Islamic World Forum, in Doha, on June 10, 2014. This years Forum is entitled Islam and Inclusion focuses on challenges of inclusion within Muslim communities around the world, especially in the context of governance, academia, religious institutions and civil society. The US-Islamic World Forum is a Brookings Institutions Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, in pa

Khatib blames regional countries for prolonging Syria war

Former Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib says he's open to negotiations with both the Syrian and Iranian governments as a matter of "principle" to help end the bloodshed in Syria.

An Iranian man holds a photo showing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while listening to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani delivering a speech on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the death of Islamic revolutionary leader Khomeini, at Khomeini's mausoleum in a suburb of Tehran on June 3, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Khamenei rep blames Saudi Arabia, Qatar for Iraq insurgents

In a rare moment of directness, a representative of Iran’s supreme leader has directly named Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the cause of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s surge in Iraq.

Iraqi women candidates attend a debate forum in Baghdad, April 19, 2014. As Iraq's general election draws closer, both men and women are vying for seats in the country's parliament. But this year's election, the first one after the withdrawal of U.S troops in 2011, has seen an increase in the number of female candidates. According to an Iraqi election official, women make up around 30 to 35 percent of the candidates in the April 30 election. "The total number of nominees in the 2010 parliamentary election

Iraqi women make gains in parliamentary elections

The strong showing of female candidates during the April 30 Iraqi elections reflect a change in this traditionally male-dominated society.

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 11, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 11, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNRE

Participation of Sunnis key to Iraqi reconciliation

Iraqi government must recognize the failed policies that led to the Sunnis' displacement and suffering in Mosul.

A man displays Iraqi army body armour in front of an Iraqi army vehicle and other items of military kit, at the Kukjali Iraqi Army checkpoint, some 10km of east of the northern city of Mosul, on June 11, 2014, the day after Sunni militants iincluding fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the city. Half a million people were estimated to have fled Iraq's second largest city, as Islamist militants tightened their grip after overrunning it and a swathe of other territory, patro

In Iran, headlines blame foreigners for ISIS advances

As the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham continues to make gains in Iraq, Iran’s right-wing media outlets are running constant updates on the situation and officials are blaming Western and Arab countries for supporting extremist groups.

Families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul arrive at a checkpoint in outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, June 10, 2014. Radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of most of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul early on Tuesday, overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners in a spectacular strike against the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR3T260

ISIS weighs approach on Baghdad

The fall of Mosul into the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is an indicator of the breakdown in the Iraqi army, and shows the necessity to unify the ranks in Iraq to fight terrorism.

People ride a motorcycle belonging to the Iraqi army at a Kurdish military checkpoint on the outskirts of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk June 11, 2014. Kurdish forces initially attempted to stop people driving vehicles looted from the Iraqi army at the checkpoint but eventually let them through as there were too many of them. Sunni insurgents from an al Qaeda splinter group extended their control from the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to an area further south that includes Iraq's biggest oil refine

Iraqi soldier describes army 'without leadership' in Mosul

The governor of Ninevah province, Atheel al-Nujaifi, blames "Maliki and his policies" for the fall of Mosul.

Burnt vehicles are seen during clashes between Iraqi security forces and al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 10, 2014. Radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of most of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul early on Tuesday, overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners in a spectacular strike against the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR3T3UD

Iran officials call for international response to ISIS violence

Iranian officials respond to the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham extremists.