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Iraq

August 11, 2026

Baghdad 1:27 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

New Syrian Kurdish media find their voices

Syrian Kurds have their own newspapers and radio stations, but are beset by familiar political challenges.

The U.S. military has apparently captured former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a raid in his home town of Tikrit, a defense official said on December 14, 2003. This December 31, 2001 file photo shows Iraqi President Saddam Hussein waving to a crowd in Baghdad. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber SJS/CMC - RTR8RO2

Ten years on, Iraqis still divided over Saddam’s legacy

Ten years after the deposed Iraqi president's capture, Iraqi citizens are left with conflicting lessons from the Saddam Hussein era.

An Iraqi money dealer counts Iranian rial banknotes bearing a portrait of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, at an exchange office in Baghdad on February 3, 2012. Tens of thousands of Iranian visitors have been finding difficulty in using the Iranian currency in Iraq due to a depreciation of the rial against the dollar. AFP PHOTO/ ALI AL-SAADI (Photo credit should read ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images)

Iraq looks to expand trade with Iran

While officials in both Baghdad and Tehran stress that they are eager to further expand trade relations between the two countries, some Iraqis fear that the government’s pro-Iran policies could be hurting local merchants.

Riot police use tear gas to disperse pro-Kurdish demonstrators during a protest in the southeastern Turkish town of Nusaybin, on the Turkish-Syrian border, November 7, 2013. Thousands of Kurds protested on Thursday against Turkish plans to build a wall along the Syrian border, calling it a move to stop Kurdish communities strengthening cross-frontier ties as Syria splinters from civil war. Nusaybin is separated from the Syrian town of Qamishli by a strip of no-man's land and barbed wire fencing. REUTERS/Str

Can Turkey’s Kurds, military ever reconcile?

A court case in Diyarbakir provides hope for the first time for reconciliation between the Turkish military and Kurdish citizens.

A weapons dealer checks AK-47 rifles before selling it to smugglers transferring it to Syria, at his house near the city of Mosul, 390km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, February 16, 2012. The weapons dealers sell a rifle for about $1000. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CONFLICT) - RTR2XY8B

Iraqi weapons market surges during Syria conflict

The illegal weapons trade in Iraq has seen a spike in activity as armed sectarian militias grow more numerous and weapons are smuggled into Syria.

Fighters from Iraq's Islamist Shi'ite militias celebrate before departing to Syria from Baghdad, June 11, 2013. Syria is splintering the Middle East along a divide between the two main denominations of Islam, becoming a battlefield in a proxy war between Assad's main regional ally, Shi'ite Iran, and his Sunni enemies in Turkey and the Gulf Arab states. As the Syrian war grinds into its third year, sectarian killings are increasing, while hardline Sunni clerics are declaring Jihad or holy war on the Shi'ites

Iraq’s sectarian militias assume larger role

Having instilled fear in local populations, Sunni and Shiite militias across Iraq maintain an iron fist over the daily affairs of Iraqi citizens.

Residents and Kurdish fighters celebrate what they said was the liberation of their village from Islamist rebels near the city of Ras al-Ain November 5, 2013. The picture depicts a member of the Kurdish Youth Movement who died during the fighting. Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said Kurdish militias had seized the city of Ras al-Ain and all its surrounding villages. Syrian Kurdish fighters have captured more territory from Islamist rebels in nor

Syrian and Iraqi Kurds more divided over Syria

The Syria war is proving to be a divisive, rather than unifying, force among the Kurds of Iraq and Syria.

Return of once forbidden Ashoura chants signals Shiite revival

After Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, once forbidden Shiite hymns have become highly popular as part of a general religious revival in the Shiite community.

A Kurdish female fighter from Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) checks her weapon near Ras al-Ain, in the province of Hasakah, after capturing it from Islamist rebels November 6, 2013. Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said Kurdish militias had seized the city of Ras al-Ain and all its surrounding villages. Syrian Kurdish fighters have captured more territory from Islamist rebels in northeastern Syria, a Kurdish militant group said on Monday,

Syrian Kurds jockey for seat at Geneva talks

As long as the Assad regime and the opposition fail to come to an agreement, Syria’s Kurds will continue to consolidate their gains.

A man holds rosary beads as he inspects the ruins of a popular coffee shop after Sunday night's suicide bomb attack in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 170 km (106 miles) north of Baghdad, July 17, 2006. Police said the attack killed 21 people. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ) - RTR1FKIH

Iraqi Turkmen town seeks to join Kurdistan Region

Following years of perceived neglect by Baghdad, some in the Iraqi town of Tuz Khormato have called for joining the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Residents look for survivors at a damaged site after what activists said was an air strike from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Takeek Al-Bab area of Aleppo, December 15, 2013. REUTERS/Molhem Barakat (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX16JRO

Rise of Islamic Front a disaster for Syria

The ascendance of the Islamic Front threatens a political transition in Syria; Lebanon paralyzed by Syria conflict; Farea al-Muslimi named FP Leading Global Thinker.

A woman stands beside the coffin of a Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) soldier who died fighting the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra in Qamishli November 14, 2013. Picture taken November 14, 2013. REUTERS/Massoud Mohammed (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX15H58

Syria war brings al-Qaeda threat to Iraqi Kurdistan

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq seeks to prevent the spillover of the war inside its borders.