Erbil

Fishermen navigate on the Shatt al-Arab waterway during a sandstorm in Basra, Iraq, Monday, May 23, 2022.

‘It’s a mass ecological crisis’: Extreme weather in Iraq hits those already struggling the hardest

June 3, 2022Environment

About a dozen dust storms have blown across Iraq this year with increased frequency and intensity. Experts say that it’s due to climate change, drought and desertification.

Yassin, a farmer from al-Sebat village in Rural Hasakah, stands in the yard where he keeps his livestock while explaining the catastrophic effects of drought on his life.

Drought in Iraq and Syria could totally collapse food system for millions, aid groups warn

September 9, 2021Climate Change

American Village entrance gates on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraq, the Kurdish defacto capital.

Kurds grapple with US troop drawdown in Iraq

August 30, 2021Military

Iranian people attend a funeral procession and burial for Iranian Major-General Qasem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, who was killed in an airstrike at Baghdad airport, at his hometown in Kerman, Iran, Jan. 7, 2020.

Iran fires missiles at Iraqi bases in retaliation for US strike on commander

January 7, 2020

Kurds celebrate to show their support for the upcoming independence referendum in Erbil, in nothern Iraq.

Iraq’s Supreme Court orders suspension of Kurdish independence referendum

September 18, 2017Conflict

Lina Shahab is recovering in a hospital in Erbil, northern Iraq, after surviving an airstrike in Mosul.

‘I saw everything burning’: Iraqi survivors of a suspected US coalition airstrike speak

March 28, 2017Conflict

The Pentagon has confirmed that the ISIS-fighting coalition carried out a strike on March 17 in an area of western Mosul where residents say more than 100 civilians were killed. US officials say they’re investigating the incident.

Fuad Sharef Suleman and his family push their belongings after returning to Iraq from Egypt

Americans fought for an Iraqi family turned back by Trump’s order — and won

January 31, 2017Global Politics

A 19-year-old Iraqi Kurd and his family were prevented from coming to the US by President Donald Trump’s immigration order. Now they are cleared for entry, and as the family regroups, friends and strangers in America are rallying to their support.

For two years, Ismail al-Kanon and his mother, Jandar Nasi, were captives of ISIS. More than most living under the terror group’s rule, they had reason to expect that they would never escape — because they were Iraqi Christians.

How an Iraqi Christian teenager survived two years in the heart of the ISIS ‘caliphate’

January 25, 2017Conflict

For two years, Ismail al-Kanon and his mother, Jandar Nasi, were captives of ISIS. More than most living under the terror group’s rule, they had reason to expect that they would never escape — because they were Iraqi Christians. Here is the story of how they kept their faith, survived and escaped.

The elite oil and gas unit of the peshmerga near Kirkuk

The curse of oil in Iraqi Kurdistan

January 17, 2017Economics

A region once held up by the US as a beacon of hope in a broken Iraq, Kurdistan has instead — in oil’s name — fallen victim to corruption and war.

The Kurds have no country of their own and their story is largely untold. A planned museum in Erbil aims to change that.

January 13, 2017Culture

Without a nation of their own, the Kurds have been fighting oppression for centuries, all the way to the present day. In fact, Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers are key forces right now in the battle against ISIS. But Kurdish history — a story of persecution, war and resilience — is largely untold. A new museum would help change that.