Iraq

September 11, 2024 3:33 PM

Iranian president visits Iraq on his first foreign trip

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq on Wednesday on his first foreign trip, signalling the clerical establishment's intention to strengthen ties with a strategic ally of both Tehran and Washington as regional tensions rise. Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who was elected in July, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at the start of his three-day visit that Baghdad said would include the signing of a number of agreements and discussion of the Gaza war and the situation i...

August 2, 2024 5:49 PM

Yazidis fear returning to their homeland, 10 years after massacre

Fahad Qassim was just 11 years old when Islamic State militants overran his Yazidi community in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in August 2014, taking him captive. The attack was the start of what became the systematic slaughter, enslavement, and rape of thousands of Yazidis, shocking the world and displacing most of the 550,000-strong ancient religious minority. Thousands of people were rounded up and killed during the initial assault, which began in the early hours of Aug. 3. Many more ar...

July 24, 2024 9:11 PM

Iraq resumes rice cultivation after two-year ban with new climate friendly strain

Iraq has resumed rice cultivation after a two-year ban prompted by water scarcity, and is testing out a strain of the grain that consumes less water than traditionally planted versions. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mahdi Sahar al-Jubouri told Reuters the country has earmarked 150 sq km (58 sq miles) for rice growing this season and forecast a yield of 150,000 tonnes, as officials said water is more abundant due to heavy winter rainfall and the promise of more water flows from Turkey. This fo...

June 10, 2024 11:02 AM

Iraq’s Mosul springs back to life 10 years after it fell to ISIS

It was the simple night-time act of watering flowers on his street in Mosul's Old City that made Saqr Zakaria stop and think about just how safe this last bastion of Islamic State militants had become since it was liberated in 2017. "I thought for a second, 'where am I?'" said Zakaria, who left the city in 2005 but returned to set up a cultural centre, the Baytna Foundation, in 2018 at a time when thousands of bodies were still being cleared from the ruins. The jihadist group declared its cali...

April 19, 2024 9:05 AM

Israel fires missiles in retaliatory strike against Iran, says US official

Israel launched missile strikes against Tehran during early hours on Friday morning (local time), ABC News reported citing a senior US official. However, the official could not confirm whether Syria and Iraq sites were hit as well. The report came shortly after local sources reported blasts in Isfahan region in Central Iran. Iran's air defence systems were activated in several locations after multiple explosions were heard close to the airport and an army base in the Iranian city of Isfahan, st...