AP News • 2nd September 2020

French leader in Baghdad, urges Iraqis to guard sovereignty

BAGHDAD (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that Iraq is facing multiple challenges with the two biggest problems being foreign interference in Iraqi affairs and the Islamic State group militants. In brief comments after meeting top Iraqi leaders on his first visit to Baghdad, Macron emphasized the need to safeguard the country’s sovereignty, and said France will continue to support Iraq. “Iraq is going through a time of challenges. We will continue to be at Iraq’s sides,” he...

AP News • 12th January 2021

Pandemic restrictions a business boon for some Iraqi women

BAGHDAD (AP) — Fatima Ali was in her final year studying to become a medical analysis specialist when Iraq imposed a full lockdown in March. Forced by a raging pandemic to stay home, she spent her days on social media, looking for something to do with her time. Then an idea came to her: Six years ago, visiting America on a young leaders exchange program, she and other students toured a Vermont cheese factory where aged cheese platters were displayed on wooden boards so inviting they looked like...

AP News • 19th February 2021

Old habits imperil Iraq as doctors warn of second virus wave

BAGHDAD (AP) — In the busy emergency room of Baghdad’s main public hospital, Ali Abbas stood face uncovered, waiting for his sickly father. Dozens of other patients and their relatives mingled without masks. It’s a scene that confounds health workers in Iraq, who warn that the country is entering a new wave of coronavirus cases, in part because many shirk precautions. “I don’t believe in the coronavirus, I believe in God,” the 21-year-old Abbas said in the middle of the hospital floor, defying t...

AP News • 27th April 2021

Iraqi medics recount horrors from Baghdad's hospital inferno

BAGHDAD (AP) — It was a night of unimaginable horror as flames engulfed the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital: deafening screams, a patient jumping to his death to escape the inferno and relatives staying by their loved ones, refusing to abandon coronavirus patients tethered to ventilators. Iraqi doctors, medical staff and rescue workers who witnessed the first moments of the catastrophic blaze described the scenes to The Associated Press, many overcome by trauma and saying that night is...

AP News • 5th May 2021

Iraq pushes vaccine rollout amid widespread apathy, distrust

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s vaccine roll-out had been faltering for weeks. Apathy, fear and rumors kept many from getting vaccinated despite a serious surge in coronavirus infections and calls by the government for people to register for shots. It took a populist Shiite cleric’s public endorsement of vaccinations — and images of him getting the shot last week — to turn things around. Hundreds of followers of Muqtada al-Sadr are now heading to clinics to follow his example, underscoring the power of se...

AP News • 16th July 2021

'I numb myself': Hospital fire deepens Iraq's COVID crisis

BAGHDAD (AP) — No beds, medicines running low and hospital wards prone to fire — Iraq’s doctors say they are losing the battle against the coronavirus. And they say that was true even before a devastating blaze killed scores of people in a COVID-19 isolation unit this week. Infections in Iraq have surged to record highs in a third wave spurred by the more aggressive delta variant, and long-neglected hospitals suffering the effects of decades of war are overwhelmed with severely ill patients, man...

AP News • 1st November 2021

After a year, Iraq students back in school as pandemic slows

BAGHDAD (AP) — In Baghdad’s Green Valley primary school, children wearing face masks waited in long lines early Monday to pass through a specially constructed disinfection tunnel before entering their classrooms. A mist of disinfectant was sprayed as each child passed through. On the other end, deputy school principal Hind Ibraheem waited, handing out squirts of hand sanitizer to each student. “I don’t know how I will maintain social distancing,” she sighed. “There are 1,300 students in this sch...

Al Jazeera • 17th March 2023

Mutanabbi Street: An intellectual haven overcomes Iraq’s pain

The booksellers of Baghdad’s Mutanabbi Street have faced invasion and bombings, two decades on from the war in Iraq.Baghdad, Iraq – Haj Mohammed al-Khashali has outlived four sons and one grandson, killed together when a car bomb tore through Mutanabbi Street in 2007.Sixteen years later, and 20 years after the United States-led invasion of his country, 89-year-old Haj Mohammed is still serving tea in the Shabandar coffee house, on the corner of the historic street he first encountered as a child...

Al Jazeera • 28th June 2023

‘How would you survive?’: Desperation grows in Iraq water crisis

Parched communities, once displaced by the ravages of ISIL, can barely survive the decimation of their water supplies.Ramadi, Iraq – The most precious resource in the villages of al-Ankour is water, and it’s gone. Many of the area’s 13,000 residents want to leave but don’t have the means to escape.Habbaniyah Lake, once a sprawling body of water spanning 140sq km (55sq miles) with a capacity of 3.3 billion cubic metres (4.2 billion cubic yards), is rapidly shrinking as a devastating water crisis...

AP News • 7th July 2023

Iraq opens an investigation into the kidnapping of a missing Israeli-Russian academic

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq opened an investigation into the case of a dual Israeli-Russian academic who has been missing in Iraq since March, a government spokesman said Friday.Bassem al-Awadi’s comments were the first official Iraqi statements since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive “and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being.”Netanyahu said Tsurkov is being held by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Bri...

AP News • 16th July 2023

Iraqi premier in Syria for first visit in over a decade to discuss boosting cooperation

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister held talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began.The two leaders told reporters that they discussed fighting drugs, the return of Syrian refugees and the imperative of lifting Western sanctions imposed in Syria. They also talked about Israel’s strikes on the war-torn country and water shortages in the Euphrates River that cuts through both countr...

AP News • 19th July 2023

Iraqis are furious over their government's demolition of a minaret that stood for nearly 300 years

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — For three centuries, the al-Siraji Mosque, with its minaret fashioned from weathered bricks and its pinnacle inlaid with blue ceramic tiles, was a distinctive feature of the city of Basra in southern Iraq. In recent years, it was one of the few tourist attractions in the oil-rich but neglected city, although locals complained that the minaret jutted out into the street, snarling traffic.In the early hours Friday morning, the 11-meter-high (33-foot-high) minaret was razed to th...

AP News • 29th July 2023

Power station fire, explosions cut off power in much of Iraq in scorching summer heat, officials say

BAGHDAD (AP) — Power was cut off in large swaths of southern and central Iraq for much of Saturday during scorching summer heat and observances of the Shiite holy day of Ashoura after a fire broke out at a power station in the southern city of Basra.The fire at the Al-Bkir substation in Basra resulted in the separation of transmission lines linking the southern and central regions, leading to a complete shutdown of the electrical system in the area, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity said in a state...

Al Jazeera • 31st October 2023

Spooky Arab tales for Halloween: Iraq’s shape-shifting Tantals

Iraq’s ancient Marshes abound with tales of the Tantal, a trickster that delights in its trickery.The Middle East abounds in tales of spirits and their antics. Today, Al Jazeera brings some of these tales to life.Myths and legends, whispered under the veil of night from elder to child, offer glimpses into a culture’s most profound fears, dreams, and values.In Iraq, the enigmatic Marshes resonate with tales of the Tantal, an elusive creature that can shape-shift – from man to beast to inanimate o...

AP News • 25th December 2023

Turkey steps up airstrikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq after 12 soldiers were killed

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Turkey intensified its airstrikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for the deaths of 12 Turkish soldiers in Iraq over the weekend.The Turkish defense ministry said in a statement Monday that it had killed at least 26 militants in the strikes.In northeast Syria, at least eight civilians were killed in Turkish airstrikes Monday, including two women, Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a post on X, fo...

AP News • 8th January 2024

Four premature babies die in hospital fire in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — A fire erupted Monday evening at a hospital in southern Iraq, sending smoke through a maternity ward and killing four babies who had been born prematurely, health officials said.The fire started at a pile of debris belonging to a construction company working on renovations at Women and Children’s Hospital in Diwaniyiah, Iraqi Health Minister Saleh al-Hasnawi told journalists at the scene. The hospital building did not burn but it was filled with smoke, and the four infants died of...

AP News • 2nd February 2024

US hits hard at militias in Iraq and Syria, retaliating for fatal drone attack

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.The massive barrage of strikes hit more than 85 targets at seven locations, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other faciliti...

PBS News • 3rd February 2024

Iranian-backed militia official in Iraq downplays U.S. retaliatory strikes, hints at de-escalation

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi militia official on Saturday hinted at a desire to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East following retaliatory strikes launched by the United States against dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
WATCH: U.S. strikes Iran-backed militias in retaliation for deadly attack on American troops
Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in an interview w...

AP News • 23rd February 2024

Iraq announces reopening of a key oil refinery a decade after it was stormed by the Islamic State

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister announced Friday the reopening of the Beiji refinery, the country’s largest, which had been shut down for a decade after being damaged in the battle against the Islamic State extremist group.Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that the refinery’s return to operation will enable Iraq to meet its oil derivative needs internally, saving billions of dollars annually, which he said “will be invested in other services and aspects of the econo...

PBS News • 28th April 2024

Iraq passes harsh anti-LGBTQ+ law imposing up to 15 years in prison, drawing backlash

BAGHDAD (AP) — Human rights groups and diplomats criticized a law that was quietly passed by the Iraqi parliament over the weekend that would impose heavy prison sentences on gay and transgender people.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that the law passed Saturday "threatens those most at risk in Iraqi society" and "can be used to hamper free-speech and expression." He warned that the legislation could drive away foreign investment.
"International business co...

AP News • 10th May 2024

Iraqi government asks the United Nations to wind down its political mission in the country

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi government has requested that the United Nations end a mission set up to promote governance and human rights reforms in the country by the end of 2025, the latest in a series of international bodies operating in the nation that Iraq has sought to wind down.The letter sent Wednesday by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that there is “no need for the continuation” of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UN...

AP News • 13th May 2024

Notorious people smuggler wanted in Europe arrested in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — One of Europe’s most notorious human smugglers was arrested Monday in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, security officials said.The regional government’s security agency said it had arrested Barzan Majeed, known as “the Scorpion,” in the area of Sulaymaniyah, upon a request from Interpol and “after the exchange of intelligence information.”He was handed over to the regional justice department, it said.The U.K.'s National Crime Agency announced Majeed’s arrest on...

AP News • 7th June 2024

Attacks on businesses linked to US brands rattle Baghdad as anger over the war in Gaza surges

BAGHDAD (AP) — A dozen masked men jump out of two SUVs and a white pickup and storm a KFC in Baghdad, smashing everything in sight before fleeing the scene. A few days earlier, similar violence played out at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken and Chili House — all American brands popular in the Iraqi capital. Though no one was seriously hurt, the recent attacks — apparently orchestrated by supporters of Iran-backed, anti-American militias in Iraq — reflect surging anger against the United States, Israe...

AP News • 27th June 2024

A leading human rights group calls on Iraq to halt deportations of Syrian refugees

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and the administration in the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region have been arbitrarily detaining and deporting Syrian refugees to their country, a leading international rights group said Thursday.The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it has documented cases in which Iraqi authorities deported Syrians even though they had legal residency or were registered with the U.N. refugee agency. The Syrians reported being arrested in raids at thei...