All Iraqis, especially the protesters who marked their year-long protests against the government on 1 October, were waiting for the parliamentary vote on the country's new early elections law this week, while discussing its controversial 15th (...)
“We did not dream more than a life looks like life,” young Iraqi demonstrator Anas Haider, 19 years old, said, quoting the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish as part of the reason that had led him to the current protests in Baghdad's Tahrir (...)
Despite the tragic loss of life, demonstrations in Baghdad and other cities in central and southern Iraq have attained their aims. Protesters have made their demands heard and created a new political climate that compelled the government and (...)
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) signed a four-year agreement on 4 March that includes measures to speed up the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Saadi Pira, a (...)
The award of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Iraqi human-rights activist Nadia Murad, who will receive the award jointly with Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, has been widely celebrated in Iraq, both by the authorities and the population at large. (...)
Last week, Sunni lawmaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi, 37, was elected as speaker of the Iraqi parliament. Al-Halbousi, who became the youngest speaker in Iraqi history, defeated former defence minister Khaled Al-Obeidi for the post, winning the position (...)
Last week, Sunni lawmaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi, 37, was elected as speaker of the Iraqi parliament. Al-Halbousi, who became the youngest speaker in Iraqi history, defeated former defence minister Khaled Al-Obeidi for the post, winning the position (...)
Basra, 540 km south of Baghdad, is the only Iraqi port and the country's gateway to the Gulf, which was itself once called the Gulf of Basra. The province is described as the lung of the Iraqi economy not only because of its contribution to Iraq's (...)
Iraqi forces, including army, police and counter-terrorism personnel and Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), entered the Altun Kupri region 40 km north of Kirkuk and 50 km south of the Kurdish capital Irbil last week.
“Iraqi federal police and (...)
For the first time in many years, those travelling between the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Baghdad have been able to pass through the various checkpoints in the so-called disputed areas without concern. There used to be Kurdish assayish (...)
Monday 25 September: a contradictory day in Iraq. Many people in the capital were sad. Baghdad's streets were full of people condemning the referendum on Kurdish independence which they feared would lead to the partition of the country.
Mohamed Ali, (...)
On 29 August, the Kirkuk Provincial Council voted on a demand from governor Najmaldin Karim, a Kurd and a high-ranking member of the Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan (PUK – the party of former Iraqi president Jalal Talbani), one of the leading Kurdish (...)
The citadel of the Iraqi city of Tal Afar (Talafer) dating back to the Assyrian period of 700 BCE dominated the city and could be seen from every side, yet this historical structure was destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) group that occupied the (...)
In 2008 the International Crisis Group described the Iraqi province of Kirkuk as a “powder keg” in a report on ethnic and political conflicts in the oil-rich northern part of Iraq. At the time residents of the area preferred the description of (...)
“There are no disputes among the Iraqi people,” Iraqi MP Hisham Al-Suhail, head of the Reconciliation Committee of the Iraqi parliament, told Al-Ahram Weekly this week, adding that “reconciliation in Iraq is not just an internal issue, but also (...)
On my way to the Khazir Camp 37km east of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, I passed the bridge over the Khazir River that was destroyed by the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014.
Workers are now trying to reconstruct the bridge, and meanwhile the (...)
“We are coming, Nineveh,” the commander of the Iraqi armed forces and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced at 2:30 am on Monday, launching the battle to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh (the Arabic acronym of the (...)
In late March, the Iraqi government announced the beginning of a military operation to liberate the Nineveh Province and its capital Mosul from occupation by the Islamic State (IS) group. A military communiqué declared that the operation was in its (...)
The Islamic month of Muharram began two weeks ago and Iraqis, especially Shias, are mourning the martyrdom of the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohamed, who was killed at the Battle of Taf in Muharram 61 AH, or October 680 CE.
Black (...)
Anti-corruption protests that began almost two months ago are continuing in Iraq, with the controversy surrounding the power-sharing policy in the country leading to chaos and violence.
“The corruption has increased the number of Iraqis living under (...)
Is the situation in Iraq survivable? The answer is ambiguous. Every postwar country goes through hardships until stability is restored, but the situation in Iraq cannot be explained this way. Here, war is the stable and ordinary state, while (...)
The first Sunday in the eighth month of the Islamic (lunar) calendar Sha'aban is called the Day of the Prophet Zachariah in Iraq, a day on which all Iraqis, regardless of religion or sect, celebrate in special ceremonies.
In the Holy Quran, the (...)
On 28 June 2004 former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi was all smiles. “In a few days, Iraq will radiate with stability and security,” he promised when he was made prime minister, according to the UK journalist Patrick Cockburn months after Allawi (...)
A story entitled “The Iraqi Via Dolorosa” was published last August in Al-Ahram Weekly when Iraqi president Fuad Masum named Haider Al-Abadi, then the deputy speaker of the parliament, as the new prime minister of Iraq.
It was predicted then that (...)
The magnificent Iraqi National Museum officially reopened last Saturday. It came after 12 years of reconstruction and efforts to restore almost one third of the recovered 15,000 pieces looted in April 2003, when Baghdad was occupied by invading (...)