Results for "struggle to fill up"

A struggle among Iraq’s rival Shiite power-brokers poses a threat to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s ambitious government overhaul, Iraqi and Western officials said. The power struggle, which involves Iran-backed militias, had paralyzed Mr. Abadi and prompted a rare intervention by the top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He endorsed Mr. Abadi’s overhaul plan, […]

The fridges are nearly full at the morgue in Mosul where the casualties of war with Islamic State are stored. So many bodies are brought in that the morgue workers struggle to identify and bury the dead fast enough to make space for the next batch that arrives with grim regularity, as the city's residents […]

Dirt barriers and charred no-man’s lands still divide the Sunni and Shia families in Yathrib even after a three-year reconciliation process meant to heal a community torn apart by the war with Isis. Officials plan to segregate roads and irrigation canals, even lobbying to split administration of the remote agriculture district in two. Though the […]

Bloody protests in Baghdad over the weekend by followers of influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr signal the resumption of a power struggle between Iraq's Shi'ite leaders which had been put on hold to focus on the war against Islamic State. With Iraqi forces all but certain to defeat Islamic State in Mosul this year, Sadr has […]

After almost nine months of fierce fighting, the campaign to recapture Mosul from Islamic State is drawing to a bitter end in the ruins of the city's historic quarter, but the struggle for Iraq's future is far from over. Aside from Mosul, across the border in Syria a battle is raging to dislodge IS from Raqqa, the second capital of its […]

Manal Idrees looks out the car window in shock at the streets of her neighborhood in the oldest part of Mosul, reduced to chunks of concrete and tangled metal. She fled when ISIS moved in three years ago. Although she has seen images of the destruction after Iraqi forces retook Mosul two weeks ago, experiencing […]

Iraqi forces are suffering fierce counterattacks in areas of Mosul recaptured from the Islamic State, soldiers say, and are barely holding the main government compound that they triumphantly declared cleared earlier this week. Police units have made a rapid push into the city over the past two weeks, reaching its main government buildings Tuesday. But […]

Salman Khaled has already lived through Baghdad's sectarian disintegration; with Iraq now splintering into Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish regions, he says this time the survival of the country is at stake. "Things are really tense and it could get worse," said the 23-year-old Sunni Muslim student. "If the politicians continue as they are doing […]

While Iraqi forces announce daily advances, the city's civilians continue to be killed and maimed by indirect fire, clashes and counterattacks. The Mosul front line in the city's east is being pushed forward in two columns: one led by the Iraqi army's 9th Division and the other by the special forces. In some places, Iraqi […]

When Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi paid a visit to the Iraqi marshlands in September 2017, photos showed him on a mashoof, the traditional narrow canoe that has been in use in the region for centuries. Yet the boat, a symbol of transportation in this UNESCO-protected area, may well be the part of the region’s heritage on the verge […]

Yesterday, I discussed how I think a policy of pushing back on Iran should be applied in Syria, where I believe the United States needs to go on the offensive against Iran.  Today, I want to look next door, at Iraq. As in Syria, Iran has important vulnerabilities in Iraq, but it also has considerable strength there.  […]

Looted and shuttered after American troops seized Baghdad a dozen years ago, the National Museum of Iraq has officially reopened its doors — a response to Islamic State thugs’ taking jackhammers to ancient treasures in Mosul. The message was clear: Baghdad and its government belong to the civilized world, and the Islamic State does not. American […]

In February 2011, thousands of people came out on to the streets of Sulaimaniya, the second city in Iraqi Kurdistan. Inspired by events elsewhere in the Middle East, they thought that people power could help end what they saw as decades of corruption by a small, powerful elite. But, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, the […]

Soldiers occupying the elegant houses that line the edge of Mosul’s Old City lounge on mattresses in dimly lit rooms. Some sit together in spacious courtyards smoking water pipes. Others hold watch on rooftops and in doorways. The insurgents have had plenty of time to build their defences, and Iraqi forces will not be able […]

Halima Dakhil lost her husband in the sectarian slaughter that engulfed Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003 and now spends her days tearful and scared, knowing her $250 monthly wage won't pay the rent and feed five children. One of an estimated 2 million women who are primary breadwinners in Iraq, Dakhil is but […]

The Iraqi town of Sinjar first became widely known in August 2014 thanks to an Islamic State (ISIS)-led genocide of much of its Yazidi population. But now, this remote area in northern Iraq is prominent for another reason. Although the territory is not rich in natural resources or population, geopolitically, it is invaluable. In fact, […]

For Todd Kozel, CEO of the independent oil and gas exploration and production company Gulf Keystone, it was an irresistible lure at the time few were daring to invest in Kurdistan. But not all is well in Kurdistan and old arguments with Baghdad over oil power and revenue are likely to loom large as U.S. […]

Reports that the terrorist group ISIS has destroyed archaeological sites and museum collections in Iraq have raised alarm in recent weeks, but the full extent of the damage is hard to gauge. Despite satellite imagery, social-media reports from people in both countries and a video released by ISIS itself, experts say that it is difficult […]

An offensive to retake Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit appears to have slowed, with fighters struggling to uproot Islamic State militants battling to retain control of one of their major bastions in Iraq. Pro-government forces, led by Shia militias and including the Iraqi army and tribal fighters, this week launched a three-pronged assault on the […]

A vehicle shielded with metal plates and driven by a suicide attacker turned onto a main road filled with soldiers in eastern Mosul and burst into a ball of fire, causing several casualties. As it careered down the road it was riddled with gunfire as Iraqi forces responded to the latest Islamic State counterattack against […]

The killings were a reminder that Iraq remains a very dangerous place, though much improved. And just as the bright, prosperous future that many Iraqis dreamed of at the start of the US-led war in 2003 has yet to materialize, so too have many of the basic freedoms it was assumed would flow from regime […]

Iraq's Christians are calling for an internationally protected safe zone to let them rebuild their lives after the brutal rule of ISIS that threatened to end their 2,000-year history. Although the Iraqi government declared victory against the terror group in 2017, Christians are continually targeted and caught in the middle of sectarian conflict, said Zina […]