When the mercury soared to 52 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) this week in Iraq, Ali Karrar placed his baby for a couple of minutes in the fridge. But when the power went off on Thursday night across oil-rich Iraq, people were left at a loss as to how to escape the torrid heat. Those with […]
Iraq
Few tears in Iraq for ‘occupier’ Rumfeld
Iraqis responded Thursday with a mixture of bitterness and indifference to the death of Donald Rumsfeld, former US defence secretary and architect of the 2003 invasion of their country. “I’m not saddened by the death of an occupier,” said Saad Jabbar, a transport ministry employee, a day after Rumsfeld’s family announced his death at the […]
Will US-Iranian tensions flare again in Iraq?
This week’s deadly US air strikes on pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq and Syria sparked fears of a new escalation between the arch-rivals. Even as they hope to revive a 2015 deal over Iran’s nuclear programme scuppered by former US president Donald Trump, are Washington and Tehran risking an explosive new confrontation? – Why the […]
Iraqi fighters mourn comrades killed in US strikes
Thousands of members of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary alliance gathered in Baghdad on Tuesday to mourn comrades killed in American air strikes along the Syrian border. The US raids early Monday sparked an exchange of fire between pro-Iranian militias and the US-led coalition in eastern Syria, as well as fears of a new US-Iran escalation […]
Iraq slams US strikes on pro-Iran fighters amid calls for revenge
Iraq on Monday condemned overnight US air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups on the Syrian-Iraqi border that killed at least seven fighters and sparked calls for revenge from Iraqi armed factions. The second such raid on pro-Iran targets since US President Joe Biden took office, described by the Pentagon as “retaliatory”, led to fears of […]
Pro-Iran group in Iraq laments ‘losses’ from US air strikes
Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary alliance said Monday that US air strikes had “resulted in the martyrdom of a group of heroic fighters” near the Syria border and threatened revenge. “We will remain the shield defending our beloved nation, and we are fully ready… to respond and take revenge” following strikes announced Sunday by the Pentagon, […]
Iraq, Egypt and Jordan hold tripartite summit in Baghdad
Egypt, Jordan and Iraq agreed to bolster security and economic cooperation at a tripartite summit Sunday that saw an Egyptian head of state visit Iraq for the first time in three decades. The visits by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II came as Iraq seeks to move closer to Arab allies […]
American jailed for betraying military sources in Iraq
A Pentagon translator was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years in prison for passing the names of US informants in Iraq to a person linked to Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah. Mariam Thompson, 62, had admitted transmitting the classified information to a Lebanese national in hopes that it would be passed on to the group designated […]
Iraq hopes to build 8 nuclear power reactors by 2030
Iraq, which suffers chronic electricity shortages, wants to construct eight nuclear power reactors by 2030 in order to reduce its external energy dependence, an official said Tuesday. The country currently uses electricity and gas imports from neighbouring Iran to generate around a third of its electricity. “By 2030-2031, we want to produce 25 percent of […]
Iraqi Kurd woman speaker battles a man’s world
Rewaz Faiq is just one of two women serving as parliament speaker in the Middle East, where politics is a man’s world, but the Iraqi Kurdish mother of two is unfazed. Known for her straight talk, Faiq knew she would face challenges when she was elected in 2019 to the post in the autonomous Kurdish […]