Donate

Baghdad

A group of people dance in a dark room.

Dance parties return to Baghdad

Arts, Culture & Media

Two years after Iraq declared victory of the Islamic State, Baghdad has slowly began to change its image. A first of its kind dance party was held in the capital city, breathing new life in a city that has become known for violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.

An Iraqi flag blows in the wind from the back of motorcycle.

The first rule of this Iraqi biker group: No politics

Baghdad Gallery

Arts, Culture & Media

The Band Plays On

Arts, Culture & Media
A private security guard stands at the front entrance of the American Embassy building in Iraq inside the green zone in Baghdad in 2004.

Blackwater guards were not well-liked even by other Americans in Iraq — but they faced real dangers

Justice
A man looks at an ancient Assyrian statue of a winged bull with a human head at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad on February 28, 2015.

After more than a decade, Iraq’s national treasures go back on display

Culture

Last week, a group of ISIS fighters destroyed ancient statues and artifacts in the museum of Mosul. Iraqi government responded on Sunday by re-opening the Baghdad Museum, giving people in Baghdad their first glimpse of national treasures in more than a decade.

Raid Latif has been making the Erbil-Baghdad trip for nearly five years. One one trip, he says he saw a car full of Iraqi security forces executed by ISIS fighters on the side of the road.

Iraq’s Baghad-to-Erbil route is a lifeline, but still a dangerous one

Conflict

After ISIS seized control of Mosul this past summer, it’s become much more dangerous for Iraqis to travel between cities. But some taxi drivers continue to drive the dangerous Baghdad-to-Erbil road because they say “it’s their job.”

ISIS flags flutter on the Mullah Abdullah bridge in southern Kirkuk in early October 2014. The Iraqi Kurdish security forces are dug-in at the opposite end of the bridge.

The campaign against ISIS isn’t producing big victories

Conflict

The US and its allies have been bombing ISIS for almost two months now. But the militants are continuing to advance and are now threatening the Syrian city of Kobane, on the border with Turkey, while Iraq and its Western allies are making piecemeal progress.

An Iraqi Christian boy fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul, stands inside the Church in Telkaif, near Mosul.

It’s a lonely Ramadan in Baghdad, but here’s why one mother is staying put

Conflict & Justice

Baghdad is an increasingly frightening place to raise a family, so many middle class parents have sent their children out of the country. As journalist Sahar Issa explains, the loneliness of the parents left behind is especially painful at Ramadan.
Baghdad is an increasingly frightening place to raise a family, so many middle class parents have sent their children out of the country. As journalist Sahar Issa explains, the loneliness of the parents left behind is especially painful at Ramadan.

ISIS member

ISIS leader tells Muslims to move to Iraq and Syria to help build an Islamic state

Global Politics

Abu bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the militant group ISIS — Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ‚— has called on Muslims to immigrate to Iraq and Syria to help build an Islamic state. ISIS hopes to create an Islamic state in the Middle East.Abu bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the militant group ISIS — Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ‚— has called on Muslims to immigrate to Iraq and Syria to help build an Islamic state. ISIS hopes to create an Islamic state in the Middle East.