Kurds

A police speed boat patrols the port as oil tankers and high speed crafts sit anchored at Muscat Anchorage near the Strait of Hormuz on March 30, 2026 in Muscat, Oman.

Analysis

Hostage to Hormuz, can Gulf rewire future energy flows to bypass Iran’s chokepoint?

As the US-Israel-Iran war disrupts around 20% of global oil supply, experts point to opportunities and challenges facing a renewed push to develop alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to MPs at his party's group meeting in the Turkish parliament on Jan. 21, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.

Analysis

How the Iran war is giving Turkey's Erdogan a big boost

Opinion polls show Turks turning to Erdogan as a steady hand during the war, even as the country's finances remain fragile.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

An Iranian Kurdish peshmerga member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran inspects the damage sustained at the Azadi Camp following an Iranian cross-border attack in the town of Koye, east of Erbil district, on March 3, 2026.

Analysis

Iran's first strike on Iraqi Kurdish forces since war began a warning to US allies

The deadly strike on Kurdish forces underscores Tehran’s readiness to pressure US partners as Erbil is caught between Iran, Baghdad and Washington.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

A view of the oil refinery on March 17, 2026 in Erbil, Iraq.

Exclusive

Iraqi oil flows to Turkey after US pledges role in Baghdad-Kurds customs dispute

A US-brokered breakthrough between Baghdad and Erbil has restarted Iraqi oil exports through Turkey after a weeklong standoff.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Exclusive

Dana Gas evacuates Khor Mor staff in Iraq's Kurdistan Region after Iran threats

A picture shows smoke billowing from the Central Production Facility 1 gas refinery in Iraq's southern Maysan province on May 29, 2022.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Desperate to sell its oil, Iraq turns to Turkey amid standoff with Kurds

An Iraqi oil tanker waits at the Khawr Abd Allah canal leading up to Al-Faw port in southern Iraq, on June 6, 2024.

Top Kurdish critic of Damascus named Syria's deputy defense minister

Sipan Hemo

Why Israel's looking to Kurds to make gains against Iran regime

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with PAK train on Jan. 18, 2026, near Erbil, Iraq.

Iraqi riot police protect the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad after calls on social media to gather outside the embassy to protest Turkey's vows to invade the northwestern enclave of Sinjar, Iraq, Feb. 18, 2021.

Turkey targets PKK-linked Yazidis inside Iraq

A local Yazidi armed group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party and affiliated with the government-incorporated Popular Mobilization Units has been targeted as part of stepped-up Turkish cross-border operations.

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters pose for a photo next to a military vehicle bearing the Kurdish flag after they reportedly captured several villages from the Islamic State in the district of Daquq on Sept. 11, 2015.

Jihadis from Syria blamed for multiple attacks on Iraqi Kurds

An onslaught of attacks on Kurdish peshmerga forces and villages in northern Iraq has sparked concerns over the presence of Islamic State cells and whether they have been bulked up by jihadis arriving from Syria.

Pro-Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Zana is embraced by lawmaker Aysel Tugluk (R) as she arrives at the parliament in Ankara on Oct. 1, 2011.

Kurdish politician's plight highlights Turkey's indifference to critically ill inmates

Aysel Tugluk, who defended PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in his trial decades ago, is now suffering from advanced dementia behind bars, despite widespread calls for her release.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Liheban in the Makhmour district on Dec. 8, 2021.

Iraqi prime minister visits site of Islamic State attack

Mustafa al-Kadhimi met with Kurdistan Region security forces in disputed Makhmour.

Turkey protest

Turkish police arrest alleged members of far-left organization

Lawyers have accused Turkish authorities of unjustly detaining people for alleged Revolutionary Peoples’ Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) links.

Mourners on Oct. 27, 2021, surround caskets of victims of yesterday's IS attack on the village of Al-Rashad in Iraq's eastern Diyala province.

Islamic State targets peshmerga in Iraq’s disputed Diyala and Makhmour

A recent string of attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan Region peshmerga forces have raised concern over how effective long-discussed coordination with the central government is in the country’s flashpoint disputed territories.

Peshmerga fighters hold a position behind sandbags at a post in the strategic Jalawla area, in Diyala province, which is a gateway to Baghdad, as battles with the Islamic State continue, Sept. 27, 2014.

Islamic State carries out another attack on Iraqi Kurdish forces

The Islamic State has attacked the security forces in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent days.

Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi militia leader and Shiite Muslim cleric, gives a news conference in the central holy shrine city of Najaf, on Nov. 18, 2021.

Shiite leaders gather in Baghdad to break political deadlock

In order to break the political deadlock resulting from Iraq's recent elections, Shiite leaders gathered to find a solution to forming the next government.

Iraqi migrants who were flown home from the Belarusian capital Minsk, arrive at the airport in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on Nov. 26, 2021.

Iraq repatriates more citizens from Belarus

The Kurdistan Regional Government previously reported that it had helped bring more than 1,800 people home from the Belarus-Poland border.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm speaks during the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference.

The Takeaway: Iran nuclear talks resume next week — What you need to know

Turkish lira crisis hits Syria; Saudi, Syrian intel chiefs talk; Netflix drama evokes memories for Izmir’s Jews; Oman bets on logistics; Egypt, Tanzania deepen ties; Gaza’s women skateboarders — all in less than 1,500 words.

Andrew Parasiliti

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Joe Snell

By Andrew Parasiliti , Elizabeth Hagedorn , Joe Snell

Mazlum Kobane (Mazlum Abdi), commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Syrian Kurdish commander says Russia opposes further Turkish land grabs

Mazlum Kobane, commander in chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, also says Damascus is not yet ready for negotiations.

A displaced Yazidi casts her vote for the parliamentary elections at a camp some 15 kilometers from the northern city of Dahuk in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, on Oct. 8, 2021.

Iraq's elections weaken PKK in Sinjar

Iraq's October elections may have strengthened the Iraqi Kurdistan administration's hands in the Yazidi enclave of Sinjar.