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Iraq

August 11, 2026

Baghdad 2:21 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

An Iraqi soldier stands guard near the Central Metering and Manifold platform (CMMP) at Al Basra oil terminal in the Middle East Gulf November 27, 2013. The Southern Oil Company is preparing a new Central Metering and Manifold Platform to increase oil export capacity. It will be operational in the first quarter of next year, according to Associate Director Mahmoud Abdul Amir. Picture taken November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: ENERGY) - RTX163GO

Basra officials hope new contracts will spur reconstruction

Following years of rampant corruption in reconstruction projects, officials in the Iraqi city of Basra are optimistic that recent contracts concluded with Hill International will spark a construction boom in the city.

An Iraqi walks past a provincial elections campaign poster in Baghdad, April 18, 2013. Iraq will hold its provincial elections on Saturday. The poster reads, "take care of Iraq". REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTXYQSM

Iraqi politicians focus on buying, not convincing voters

Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq's political scene has been more about infighting and vote-buying than the state's welfare.

Smoke rises into the sky from what activists said was Free Syrian Army fighters destroying a tank that belonged to forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Qaboun area, eastern Ghouta, September 15, 2013. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX13MHE

Suicide bombings on the rise among Shiites

While suicide attacks were once the preserve of Sunni extremist groups, there have been reports of recent attacks in Syria carried out by Shiite militants fighting alongside the Assad regime.

Assem al-Tamimi, a Palestinian doctor and Hijama specialist, treats patients at his clinic in the West Bank city of Hebron August 8, 2009. Hijama is a traditional Islamic treatment method that involves creating a vacuum on the skin by placing inverted cups on parts of the body and drawing blood from an incision on the skin. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK HEALTH IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR26IKP

Hijama, bloodletting as a traditional medicine, remains popular in Iraq

Hijama, a form of traditional medicine that involves removing "bad blood" with suction cups, remains popular in Iraq due to its foundation in culture and religion.

A ship is docked at Al-Basra oil terminal, next to a Central Meeting and Manifold Platform belonging to Iraq's Southern Oil Company in the Middle East Gulf November 27, 2013. The Southern Oil Company is preparing a new Central Metering and Manifold Platform to increase oil export capacity. It will be operational in the first quarter of next year, according to Associate Director Mahmoud Abdul Amir. Picture taken November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: ENERGY) - RTX163G7

Iraq seeks to become regional trade hub

As its economy continues to struggle, Iraqi officials are working to improve the country's transportation sector to make it an international trading hub.

Islamist fighters demonstrate with their weapons during their graduation ceremony at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus November 28, 2013. The newly graduated fighters, who went through military training, will operate under the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade. Picture taken November 28. REUTERS/Diaa Al-Din (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTX15XCO

Syrian events continue to develop in Geneva, Ghouta

Though the battles taking place in both places take different forms, the events going on in Ghouta and Geneva will bear significantly on the near future of the conflict.

Iraqi freelance cameraman Yasser Faysal al-Joumaili poses for a picture in Falluja, 50 km (31 miles) west of Baghdad November 22, 2004. An al Qaeda-linked group in Syria has executed an Iraqi freelance cameraman, the first foreign journalist killed by insurgents in the conflict, a press freedoms watchdog said on December 5, 2013. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Joumaili while he was on a reporting trip in northern Syri

Iraqi authorities fail to protect journalists

Journalists are increasingly being targeted by attacks and killings in Iraq, while the government stands by in silence.

Protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against Turkish security forces, after an incident in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province killed one person and wounded seven on Friday, in Istanbul June 29, 2013. Turkish security forces killed one person and wounded seven on Friday when they fired on a group of people protesting against construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey, security sources said. The incident happened in the village of Kayacik in the Lice di

Kurdish peace process is on knife edge — again

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members kidnapped four Turkish soldiers on Sunday only to release them early Monday; this has caused people to question the progress of talks with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

A victim of human trafficking from Iraq, 14, laughs while speaking at a shelter for women and children in Abu Dhabi May 31, 2011. The non-profit shelter was established in Abu Dhabi in 2008, and two more centers have since been established in neighbouring emirates Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah, helping victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking from around the region. REUTERS/Jumana El Heloueh (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTR2N4VD

Iraqi government rejects plans for women’s shelters

The Iraqi government has refused to back plans by civil society associations to open shelters for battered women, claiming that women would use them to leave their husbands, and this would threaten many Iraqi families.

People sit in the back of a truck as they celebrate what they said was the liberation of villages from Islamist rebels near the city of 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

Syrian Kurds discuss differences over Geneva II

At the core of Syrian Kurd differences is tension between Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani and Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Iraqis walk down Al-Rashid Street in the capital Baghdad, January 2, 2005. Rashid Street, the once vibrant heart of the city, has been in sad decline for decades, its intellectual life choked by repression, its cafes and stores strangled by war and sanctions. But it has taken the anarchy, crime and guerrilla violence unleashed after the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein to kill off what was left of Rashid Street's colonnaded, Ottoman-era charm. TO ACCOMPANY FEATURE STORY BC-IRAQ-STREET REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

Maliki's housing initiative may be part of election strategy

Is Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "National Initiative for Housing" a means to win votes?

Assyrian mural sculptures are displayed in the Iraqi national museum in Baghdad September 24, 2008. In Iraq's national museum, a frieze shows an Assyrian king, whose former capital is now in modern Iraq, besieging what looks like a walled town as soldiers pile decapitated heads at his feet. Picture taken September 24, 2008. To match feature IRAQ/MUSEUM REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz (IRAQ) - RTX95P0

National Museum of Iraq remains closed to public

Four years after officially reopening, Iraq's national museum remains off-limits to average Iraqis and information about it is difficult to obtain.