Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani leads new government, vowing to reform economy and fight corruption
Iraqi lawmakers have approved a new government, ending more than a year of deadlock, but the country still faces many challenges.
Prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, who previously served as Iraq’s human rights minister as well as minister of labour and social affairs, will head the new government.
Continue reading...Experts find artefacts from ancient empire during restoration of historic site destroyed by Islamic State
Archaeologists in northern Iraq have unearthed 2,700-year-old rock carvings featuring war scenes and trees from the Assyrian empire, an archaeologist has said.
The carvings on marble slabs were discovered in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, where experts have been working to restore the site of the ancient Mashki Gate, which was bulldozed by Islamic State militants in 2016.
Continue reading...Exiled Kurdish forces in Iraq feel abandoned by west and say they need weapons like in Ukraine
Picking through a pile of twisted metal, Rebaz, a Kurdish Iranian fighter, stooped to cradle a jagged chrome piece that was dug from the ruins of his base. “This was part of a Fateh missile,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest that the Iranians have in their arsenal. It’s from the day they tried to wipe us out.”
The heap included other wreckage – of rockets and kamikaze drones that had devastated this small outpost, just east of Erbil in northern Iraq, a fortnight ago. Since then, jittery guards had looked from the ruins towards the east, from where more than two dozen ballistic missiles and another dozen kamikaze drones blazed from a blue sky a fortnight ago.
Continue reading...Brian Glendinning’s case highlights peril for football fans travelling to the Gulf nation this year, experts warn
A British engineer is in jail in Iraq and facing extradition to Qatar over missed repayments on a small bank loan, in a case said to highlight the perils facing those travelling to the Gulf state for the World Cup.
Brian Glendinning, 43, who had been contracted to work on a BP refinery in Iraq, was arrested on an Interpol “red notice” at Baghdad airport on 12 September and has been in a police cell since awaiting an extradition hearing.
Continue reading...Teargas and stun grenades used by security forces as unrest over poverty and corruption flares up in the capital and other cities
Iraqi security forces have fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters in clashes that wounded scores of people near Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds marked the anniversary of anti-government unrest in 2019.
At least 86 people were wounded on Saturday, about half of them members of the security forces, and 38 protesters were hit by rubber bullets.
Continue reading...Deadly attack comes in response to KDPI support for ongoing protests over Mahsa Amini death in custody
Iran has launched a deadly cross-border airstrike into northern Iraq to punish Kurds for their role in supporting demonstrations over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in Iranian police custody that are still rattling the Tehran regime.
As many as 13 people were killed and 58 injured in the Iranian drone strikes on military bases in northern Iraq that belong to the exiled Kurdish Democratic party of Iran.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Jailed engineer appears gaunt with moles doctors fear are cancerous, as wife decries ‘watching his murder in slow motion’
The Australian government says it holds “serious concerns” for the welfare of Australian engineer Robert Pether as his health deteriorates in a Baghdad jail cell, a process his wife has likened to “watching his murder in slow motion”.
The Guardian has obtained the first photos of Pether since he was arrested and arbitrarily imprisoned in Baghdad in April last year over a business dispute between the Iraqi government and his architecture firm, which was engaged to build a new headquarters for the central bank.
Continue reading...Death toll rises during violent clashes between rival Shia groups after Muqtada al-Sadr resigns from politics
Explainer: why are Shia groups fighting each other in Iraq?
Supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have heeded his call to return to their homes after a day of clashes that left at least 30 people dead, wounded hundreds and sparked fears of a wider conflict within the country’s Shia population.
Raising hopes that the immediate crisis would ebb, Sadr on Tuesday called for the Iraqi army to retake control of Baghdad’s green zone, which had been the scene of the fiercest fighting between Sadrist members and pro-Iranian militias. Shortly after noon, the city’s streets were rapidly emptying, as Iraq’s prime minister praised a stand-down that many observers believe helped avert a descent into protracted violence.
Continue reading...At least 15 killed in clashes between Iraq militias after Shia leader announces his exit from Iraqi politics
Months of political tensions over stalled attempts to form a government in Iraq have spilled over into violence, with at least 15 people killed and hundreds hurt in clashes between militias in Baghdad’s Green Zone and a nationwide curfew imposed.
The gunfire followed an announcement by the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that he was quitting politics and an earlier decision by his spiritual mentor to retire and attempt to persuade Sadr to transfer his fealty to Iran.
Continue reading...‘I fear that Australia will in short time be repatriated with the corpse of Mr [Robert] Pether’, say doctors of imprisoned engineer
Doctors for an Australian engineer jailed in Iraq have privately warned the Australian government of fears that Australia will be repatriating “a corpse” if his condition continues to rapidly deteriorate.
Robert Pether’s family have repeatedly raised fears about the 47-year-old’s health since he was jailed over a business dispute relating to the construction of a new headquarters for Iraq’s central bank, which Pether’s firm was working on.
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Continue reading...Rallies in support of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr follow occupation of Iraqi parliament amid a political vacuum
Protesters from rival Shia blocs have taken to the streets of several Iraqi cities in a show of force that sparked fears of a descent into violence amid a 10-month political standoff about naming a new government.
The rallies followed a weekend occupation of the Iraqi parliament by supporters of the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has called for the post-2003 political system in Iraq to be overthrown through popular revolt in perhaps the most serious challenge Iraq has faced since the Islamic State terror group overran Mosul and nearly stormed Baghdad in June 2014.
Continue reading...Followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr bring down cement barricades leading to Baghdad’s government zone
Thousands of followers of an influential Shia cleric stormed into Iraq’s parliament on Saturday for the second time this week, protesting against government formation efforts lead by his rivals, an alliance of Iran-backed groups.
The alliance showed signs of internal division, with some calling for counter-protests – a development that would raise the spectre of civil strife – while others later urged for dialogue.
Continue reading...Analysis: Kurdish officials are considering allying with Iranian interests to finally form a government in Baghdad
A parliament besieged by protesters, a country adrift nine months after an election, a feud between domestic blocs and Iranian proxies: for many Iraqis, the latest political crisis is nothing new.
But to many observers this standoff appears more complex and protracted than most over the more than two decades of efforts to root a democratic state in Iraq. From the Kurdish region in the north to Anbar province in the west and the Shia communities in the south, there appears to be little hope that a government pursuing a collective national interest can emerge from the power struggle.
Continue reading...Police fired teargas in a bid to stop crowds who entered parliament waving flags, taking photographs, chanting and cheering
Hundreds of supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr danced and sang in parliament after storming Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone in protest at a rival bloc’s nomination for prime minister.
Police fired barrages of teargas in a bid to stop the protesters from breaching the gates of the heavily fortified Green Zone, but the crowds surged forward and entered parliament.
Continue reading...Family of retired geologist Jim Fitton, 66, ‘over the moon’ after court quashes 15-year jail sentence
A retired British geologist is to be released from an Iraqi prison after his 15-year jail sentence for smuggling antiquities was quashed, according to his family and lawyer.
Jim Fitton, 66, was jailed after collecting 12 stones and shards of broken pottery as souvenirs while visiting a site in Eridu as part of an organised geology and archaeology tour.
Continue reading...Turkey blames PKK after nine people killed at water park in area where there have been frequent clashes
The bodies of nine tourists killed in a shelling attack in northern Iraq have been flown to Baghdad, as up to 23 survivors were treated in hospital and a political row intensified over who was responsible.
The Iraqi government has accused Turkish forces of an attack on its citizens in a resort near the Kurdish city of Zakho, in the country’s far north. Turkey denied it had launched strikes against civilians and instead claimed that its arch-foe, the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), was responsible.
Continue reading...Ahmad Merhi, who travelled from Sydney to Syria and is accused of joining Islamic State, says he is now stateless as he awaits hanging
The former Coalition government wrongly cancelled the citizenship of an Australian man on death row in Iraq, leaving him stateless as he awaited hanging on terrorism charges, his family and lawyers claim.
Ahmad Merhi, originally from Sydney, travelled to Syria in 2014. He was captured in the country in 2017.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Investigation by group of prominent human rights lawyers also criticises Syria and Iraq
Turkey should face charges in front of the international court of justice for being complicit in acts of genocide against the Yazidi people, while Syria and Iraq failed in their duty to prevent the killings, an investigation endorsed by British human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy has said.
The groundbreaking report, compiled by a group of prominent human rights lawyers, is seeking to highlight the binding responsibility states have to prevent genocide on their territories, even if they are carried out by a third party such as Islamic State (IS).
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pether, who has been imprisoned for 14 months in Baghdad, has become ‘gravely ill’ according to his family
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has raised the case of jailed engineer Robert Pether with the Iraqi leader, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, as the Australian’s family warns he has become “gravely ill” and is rapidly deteriorating in his Baghdadi jail cell.
Pether has now been imprisoned for more than 14 months following a commercial dispute between his engineering firm and Iraq’s central bank, which had hired Pether’s company to help build its new Baghdad headquarters. Pether’s family say he is innocent and the trial was unfair and compromised.
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Continue reading...Yazidi Justice Committee has been working privately for more than two years to show states failed to protect minority group
A group of high-level British lawyers have been working privately on compiling evidence to show that one or more countries failed in their international obligations to prevent genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq.
The lawyers, who formally announced their collaboration as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) on Tuesday, have been working over the past two and a half years to investigate the genocide committed from early 2013 by Islamic State.
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