Media Coverage

Cholera has swept across Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq as the countries have struggled with devastated infrastructure, turmoil and housing large populations of people displaced by conflict. The hundreds of thousands of cases, worsened by conflict, poverty and climate change, have become a major setback...

Iraqi firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement announced its refusal to join a new government being formed by Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Shia al-Sudani. The announcement came two days after lawmakers elected Abdul Latif Rashid as Iraq’s new president, and he swiftly named al-Sudani as...

Lawmakers in Iraq have elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as the country’s new president, paving the way for the formation of a new government and ending a year of deadlock, even as rockets landed near the parliament building. Rashid replaced fellow Iraqi Kurd Barham Saleh as head of...

Iraq’s top court, the Federal Court, on Wednesday rejected a petition to dissolve the parliament, saying that to do so would be beyond the court's legal authority and that the parliament—which has the power to choose a president and prime minister—must dissolve itself if it is deemed to not have...

Supporters of the Iraqi Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr have rallied in front of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council, expanding a sit-in that initially began in front of the parliament building, and escalating their calls for parliament to be dissolved. In response, the Supreme Judicial...

Hundreds of Iraqi demonstrators, most of them followers of the Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, have stormed the parliament building in Baghdad to protest against the nomination for prime minister by Iran-backed parties. No lawmakers were present in parliament when the protesters penetrated the...

Armed groups in Iraq abduct, rape, torture, and kill lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today with IraQueer. The 86-page report, “‘Everyone Wants Me Dead’: Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Sexual Violence Against LGBT...

Protests have erupted in Iraq’s impoverished south over a rise in food prices that officials attributed to the conflict in Ukraine. For about a week, the price of cooking oils and flour have skyrocketed in local markets as government officials have sought to address growing anger with various...

The Islamic State (IS) group unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its “caliphate” three years ago. More than 100 militants assaulted the main prison holding suspected extremists, sparking a battle with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that continued 24 hours later and left dozens dead...

The threat of worsening violence looms over Baghdad again this week, underscoring the challenges faced by influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of parliament’s biggest bloc, in his stated efforts to form a majority government, following October’s contested election. In the latest of a...