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Iraq

August 12, 2026

Baghdad 3:49 pm

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The commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, speaks during a commemoration ceremony marking the anniversary of the 2020 killing of Guards general Qasem Soleimani (on screen) in the capital Tehran on Jan. 3, 2024.

Analysis

What Qaani's Baghdad visit reveals about Iran's post-war dilemma

The Quds Force commander's Baghdad visit is occurring as Iran faced difficult choices in Iraq where the government is moving to bring powerful armed groups under state control after the recent war.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Qaani

IRGC chief Qaani reportedly in Iraq ahead of militia deadline

Esmail Qaani, who heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, has been heavily involved in Iran’s relations with Iraqi militias.

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

Latest News

Iraqi Kurdish president’s meeting with Syria’s Sharaa signals shift in SDF dynamics

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Damascus, Aug. 3, 2026. IKRPresident/X

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

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

Iraqi soldier stands guard at Umm Qasr's port near Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad July 10, 2009. Unions are lobbying against Iraq's new oil contract with BP and China's CNPC, but the weakened labour movement may have a hard time thwarting deals desperately needed to revive a struggling oil sector. Picture taken July 10, 2009. REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ CONFLICT POLITICS EMPLOYMENT BUSINESS ENERGY) - RTR25MGP

Iraq’s Faw Port Project Faces Continued Setbacks

Iraq’s Grand Faw Port, planned to be one of the largest maritime ports in the gulf region, has been stalled due to political disputes.

Newly married Iraqi couples arrive at a hotel for a mass wedding reception in central Baghdad, 07 December 2007. Around 70 couples celebrated their wedding today together at a hotel in central Baghdad. AFP PHOTO/ALI YUSSEF (Photo credit should read ALI YUSSEF/AFP/Getty Images)

Iraqi Women Victimized By Tribal Marriage Customs

In patriarchal and tribal Iraq, thousands of women are forced into unwanted marriages with little to no legal recourse.

Protesters demand that the pensions of parliamentarians be cancelled during a demonstration in Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, August 31, 2013. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq on Saturday against generous pension payments to lawmakers in a county where many are still struggling to get jobs and basic services. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed (IRAQ - Tags - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT SOCIETY CIVIL UNREST) - RTX132KM

New Iraqi Protest Movement Targets Corrruption

Overall dissatisfaction with the Iraqi government promises to overcome sectarian, ethnic and political rifts and pave the way for the emergence of a potentially effective protest movement.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (R) speaks with Kurdish President Masoud Barazani (L) during his visit to Dokan, 290 km (180 miles) northeast of Baghdad July 29, 2009. Ruling parties in Iraqi Kurdistan will retain control of the Kurdish parliament after weekend polls, preliminary results showed on Wednesday. An opposition movement, campaigning against corruption and for political reforms, took a surprise 23.8 percent, electoral officials said in the Kurdish capital Arbil. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ POLITICS

KDP May Run Alone In Iraqi Kurdistan Elections

The two major parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have shared power since 2005, but some believe that President Massoud Barzani and his party are planning to go it alone following upcoming parliamentary elections.

Iraqi Sunni Muslims chant "Allahu Akbar", meaning God is great, during an anti-government demonstration in the central city of Samarra, May 17, 2013. Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims poured onto the streets of Ramadi and Falluja in the western province of Anbar following Friday prayers, in their biggest show of strength since the outbreak of protests last year. REUTERS/Bakr al-Azzawi (IRAQ - Tags - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS) - RTXZQH6

Iraqi Sheikh Faces Divisions Within Sunni Community

Sheikh Abdul-Malik al-Saadi seeks to balance support for protests with opposition to a Sunni federal region in Iraq.

Arab foreign ministers arrive to an emergency meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis and the potential military strike on President Bashar al-Assad's regime, at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, September 1, 2013. Saudi Arabia told fellow Arab League states on Sunday that opposing international intervention against the Syrian government would only encourage Damascus to use weapons of mass destruction. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX1341M

Middle East Alliances More Tangled Than Ever

The alliances of regional countries are based on seemingly contradictory interests.

Iraqi security forces stand inside a Sunni mosque at the site of a suicide bomber attack in the town of Wajihiya in the ethnically and religiously diverse province of Diyala, July 20, 2013. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq, killing at least 20 people in the middle of a sermon on Friday. REUTERS Mohammed Adnan (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTX11SM4

Traumatic Memories Mar Baghdad Neighborhoods

Violence and terrorism have left many Iraqis with post-traumatic stress associated with specific areas of Baghdad they continue to associate with a violent event.

An Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim boy kisses a poster of the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the town of Karbala, some 110 km south from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, early February 6, 2004. Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, survived an assassination bid on Thursday when gunmen opened fire on his entourage in the sacred streets of Najaf, a security aide said. The assassination attempt comes days before a team of United Nations electoral experts is due to arrive in the country to assess the feasi

Ayatollah Sistani and The Battle of Najaf

A book by an aide to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani reveals new details about the 2004 Battle of Najaf.

Women hold posters of Shi'ite Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeini to commemorate the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day and to show support for the Palestinians, during a rally in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, October 20, 2006. REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ) - RTR1IIUAi

Iraq’s Identity Crisis in Symbols

In an increasingly divided Iraq, disputes have broken out regarding the use of photography and symbolism that reinforces sectarian, rather than national, affiliations.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu addresses his supporters during his party's congress in Ankara February 26, 2012. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2YGY0

Erdogan Criticizes Opposition Leader For Visits to Iraq, Egypt

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan feverishly criticizes main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu for his travels to Baghdad and Cairo.

Syrian refugees look out from their tent at a refugee camp in al-Qaim, Anbar province, September 8, 2012. Al Qaim, in the Sunni heartland of Anbar province, reflects the tricky balancing act Iraq's Shi'ite leaders face in Syria, whose crisis is testing the Middle East's sectarian divide. Al Qaim and its neighbouring Syrian counterpart Albu Kamal are on a strategic supply route for smugglers, gun-runners and now insurgents aiming to join the rebellion. Picture taken September 8, 2012. To match Feature SYRIA-

Iraq Needs Unity to Deal with Syria Crisis

As foreign military intervention in Syria grows more imminent, the Iraqi authorities would do well to set aside their internal differences and take the necessary precautions should its neighbor’s conflict spill over onto its territory.

Syrian refugees, fleeing the violence in their country, wait to cross the border into the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, August 21, 2013. The government of Iraqi Kurdistan has set an entry quota of 3,000 refugees a day to cope with an influx of Kurds fleeing the civil war in Syria, but there are signs many more are still coming in, aid agencies said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION) - RTX12SKT

Syrian Kurdish Party Struggles With Dissent, Exodus

In Amuda, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has imposed a resolution banning Syrian Kurdish emigration after last month's mass exodus in pursuit of autonomy.