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Iraq

June 19, 2026

Baghdad 9:44 pm

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Tom Barrack

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Barrack heads to Iraq as US presses Baghdad on Iran-backed militias

US envoy Tom Barrack is due to meet with Iraq’s new prime minister and other top officials in Baghdad, where he will likely press US demands for Iran-backed Shiite militias be dismantled and disarmed.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Members of the Iranian national soccer team including midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh (R) arrive at Tijuana International Airport on June 7, 2026, in Tijuana, Mexico.

Culture

World Cup opens amid visa disputes for Iran, Iraq and Somalia

Iran says a number of team staff were denied entry into the US, with Trump administration officials touting efforts to prevent affiliates of designated terrorist groups from entering.

Latest News

Syria says Iraqi oil shipments surge as Damascus courts foreign energy investment

A long convoys of Iraqi diesel-laden tanker trucks line up along the highway Tartus-Baniyas highway as they wait to unload their cargo at the Baniyas port refinery on the Mediterranean Sea, on April 15, 2026.

Israel-Iran escalation grounds flights across parts of Middle East

An Airbus A321 airliner arrives at the Mehrabad international airport during the delivery of the first batch of planes to the Iranian state airline Iran Air in the capital Tehran on Jaunary 12, 2017. - The aircraft arrived as part of an order for 100 other Airbus planes with a list price of around $20 billion (19 billion euros) on December 22, placed after the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic republic. It will be used for internal flights landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. (Photo by ATTA

Culture

10 MENA teams at 2026 World Cup: Morocco eyes title, Iran faces visa hurdles

Morocco's midfielder Azzedine Ounahi celebrates scoring with teammates during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E African qualification football match between Morocco and Niger at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat on September 5, 2025. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)

Analysis

Turkey pushes Iraq, Syria trade routes as Hormuz crisis disrupts Gulf shipping

Vessels are seen anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the port city of Khasab on Oman's northern Musandam Peninsula, on May 17, 2026.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Suadad al-Salhy

In Baghdad, reporting on politics and security

Lyse Mauvais

In Amman, reporting on humanitarian crises

Winthrop Rodgers

In Sulaymaniyah, reporting on Kurdish issues

382543 02: Iraqi president Saddam Hussein raises his rifle in a salute and fires it November 20, 2000 durring Grand Day of Quds festivities in Baghdad. Grand Day of Quds celebrates Iraq''s commitment to liberating Jerusalem from Israeli rule. (Photo by Newsmakers

Iraq's Baath Party archive location unknown

The United States last month shipped a historic archive of Baath regime documents to Iraq, but the government is keeping mum about its location and fate, given the political sensitivity of the documents.

Employees display rifles for sale at a gun shop in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on September 22, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iraq cracks down on illegal arms flow to militias, armed groups

Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government has launched a campaign in southern provinces to get illegal arms out of the hands of militias and tribal groups.

OPEC+ pressures Iraq, UAE to further cut oil production

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members held a virtual meeting with Russia and other allied oil producers today to discuss the continuing low price of oil amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Iraqi anti-government demonstrator walks past posters of Iraqi polititians and a US flag in Tahrir Square in the capital Baghdad, on August 1, 2020. - Iraq will hold its next parliamentary elections nearly a year early, the premier announced yesterday, as he seeks to make good on promises he offered when he came to power.
Protests began in October, with thousands taking to the streets of Baghdad and across the south.
Demonstrators demanded that the political system be dismantled, pointing to endemic corr

Iraqi government steps up fight against corruption

The arrest of six senior officials on corruption charges shows that serious steps are taken in the fight against corruption, amid calls that the government speeds up its reform program.

US gives Iraqi Kurdistan peshmerga $250 million worth of Humvees, ammo

Washington's ambassador announced the move as some US troops prepare to leave Iraq.

Iraq, counter-IS coalition kill, capture Islamic State figures

The US-led anti-IS coalition provided helicopter transport for the Iraqi raid in al-Rutba.

PKK under pressure in Iraq's Kurdistan Region

Turkey is continuing its attacks on the Kurdistan Workers Party as a senior Iraqi Kurdish military official hints the group may be wearing out its welcome.

A picture of Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is seen at a shop in a market in the capital Baghdad on January 18, 2020. (Photo by SABAH ARAR / AFP) (Photo by SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Sistani backs Iraqi government crackdown on outlawed militias

Top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani backs early elections and calls on the Iraqi government to take action against the outlawed militias and mafia active in the country.

Kurdish Iraqi men and women practice yoga on Mount Azmar, which overlooks the northern city of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, on July 19, 2020. - According to kurdish Iraqi Yoga instructor Muhammad Sherzade, an increasing number of people joined his class since he established his school in the region in 2016, following the outbreak earlier this year of the coronavirus epidemic. (Photo by Shwan MOHAMMED / AFP) (Photo by SHWAN MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images)

Are Iraqi youths losing their religion?

Despite the influence of religion in Iraqi politics, recent studies show that young people in Iraq are increasingly identifying as secularist.

Denmark will open embassy to Iraq in Baghdad this year

Denmark is assuming control of NATO's training mission in Iraq in December. The European Union member has also trained PMU forces in the fight against the Islamic State.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi (C) chairs a meeting with military commanders in Tarmiyah, 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Baghdad on July 20, 2020. (Photo by Khalid MOHAMMED / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KHALID MOHAMMED/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Iraqi prime minister forbids state bodies from classifying Iraqis by sect

Mustafa al-Kadhimi's decision was prompted by an outcry over the Iraqi Military College listing new students by sectarian classification.

US army soldiers, part of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group, walk around at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 2,000 US troops to leave Iraq in September, CENTCOM says

CENTCOM head formally announces long-awaited reduction of US forces in Iraq.