Latest News

Instability in Iraq

Iraq Will Implement Federal Court Decision on Kurdish Oil Revenue

  • The Iraqi oil minister announced the implementation of a February ruling deeming the oil industry in Kurdistan unconstitutional and calling on Kurdish authorities to relinquish their crude oil supplies to Baghdad (Middle East Monitor)

Bloc of Iraqi Lawmakers Resigns Amid Efforts to Break Political Deadlock

  • Seventy-three lawmakers from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc resigned yesterday in an apparent move to end eight months of political deadlock since October’s elections (Al Monitor)

Iran Shells Terrorist Positions in Erbil, Iraq

  • Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched artillery fire on alleged terrorist positions in Erbil, Iraq (Al Jazeera)

Danish Tourist Killed in Northern Iraq

  • A Danish tourist was killed by a roadside bomb in Northern Iraq; local authorities blamed Turkish Kurdish insurgents for planting the device (Associated Press)

Thousands Flee Sinjar, Iraq Amid Clashes

  • At least three thousand people fled the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar due to clashes between the Iraqi army and a militia linked to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) (Al Jazeera)

UN: Mines Killed, Injured More Than 500 Children in Iraq in Recent Years

  • UNICEF called for Iraq to be cleared of explosives after a new report found that at least 519 children had been killed or injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance in Iraq over the last five years (Agence France Presse)

Iraqi Parliament Fails to Elect President for the Third Time

  • The Iraqi parliament failed for a third time to elect a new president after less than two-thirds of legislators showed up to vote (Al Jazeera)

Iraqis Protest Rising Food Prices

  • Officials blamed the war in Ukraine for a recent food price spike, which prompted hundreds of people to protest in the southern city of Nasiriya (Agence France-Presse)

Protests and Repairs Shut Down More Than 10 Percent of Iraq’s Oil Production

  • Protests over employment opportunities by graduate students in Iraq’s Dhi Qar province, along with necessary maintenance, has halted more than 10 percent of Iraqi oil output (Reuters)

Iraqi Supreme Court Bars Front Runner from Presidential Race

  • Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court barred former foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, a prominent Kurdish politician and front runner in the race, following corruption allegations (Reuters)

Iraqi Parliament Fails to Elect New President

  • Iraq’s parliament could not elect a new head of state after it failed to meet the lawmaker threshold necessary for quorum; the cancelled vote came after the Iraqi Supreme Court suspended one candidate’s presidential bid, prompting boycotts by several political blocs (Reuters)

Kuwait Airways Resumes Flights to Iraq

  • The Iraqi foreign ministry announced that Kuwait Airways would resume flights to Iraq after suspending them last month due to instability in the country (Reuters)

UN Reiterates Importance of Iraqi Sovereignty, Calls for Dialogue and Cooperation

  • Following Turkish airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq reiterated the importance of Iraq’s territorial integrity and called for disputes to be addressed through dialogue and cooperation (UN News)

Iraqi Government Air Strikes Kill Nine Suspected Islamic State Members

  • Officials said Iraqi government air strikes killed nine suspected members of the self-declared Islamic State after the militant group attacked an Iraqi army post earlier this month (Associated Press)

Rocket Attack Hits Baghdad’s Green Zone, Wounds Two

  • Security forces are investigating a rocket attack that hit Baghdad’s Green Zone yesterday and wounded a woman and a child (CNN)

Iraq’s Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Overturn Elections

  • The Supreme Court of Iraq rejected an effort by the Iran-backed political party Fatah to overturn the results of October parliamentary elections (Al Jazeera)

Iraqi Official: U.S. Troops Have Ended Combat Mission

  • Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said that the approximately 2,500 U.S. troops will move to training and advisory roles. Most have been in such roles for some time (Reuters)

Explosion in Iraq Kills Four

  • A blast from a motorcycle rigged with explosives killed at least four people in the city of Basra, military officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack (Al Jazeera)

UN Report Documents Islamic State War Crimes in Iraq

  • The Islamic State committed crimes against humanity and war crimes by systematically killing at least one thousand prisoners in the city of Mosul in 2014, a UN investigator said (Associated Press)

Iraqi Prime Minister Survives Apparent Assassination Attempt

  • No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the drone attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s Baghdad home, as Kadhimi calls for “calm and restraint” (BBC)

Iraq’s Electoral Commission Conducts Recount

  • Iraqi election officials are conducting a manual recount of certain polling stations’ votes from October 10 parliamentary elections after irregularities were reported (The National)

Self-declared Islamic State Militants Reportedly Kill Eleven Civilians in Iraqi Village

  • An Islamic State attack on a village in the Diyala province in eastern Iraq killed at least eleven people, according to Iraqi authorities (Al Jazeera)

Protests in Baghdad Over Election Results

  • Supporters of Hashd al-Shaabi, a pro-Iranian former paramilitary force, protested election results and demanded a recount in Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)

Iraq Says It Captured Alleged Mastermind of Deadly 2016 Attack

  • Iraq’s prime minister said authorities captured Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, a militant belonging to the self-proclaimed Islamic State who is believed to have been the primary culprit of an attack that killed some three hundred people at a shopping center in 2016 (BBC)

Iraq Arrests ISIS Leader

  • Iraqi security forces said they captured the finance chief of the self-declared Islamic State. Washington had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his capture (NYT)