Iraq

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, purportedly seen here in video posted in 2014.

World News

ISIS Releases Purported Audio Recording Of Leader Al-Baghdadi

4:42pm August 23, 2018

by Sasha Ingber

In the message, which is nearly an hour long, the speaker says he knows followers are suffering from "hunger and fear" and urges patience. He also calls on them to engage in small-scale attacks.

A Mosul resident looks at the ruins of a damaged historic house in his neighborhood in Mosul's Old City. The United Nations estimates 8,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the fighting to take back this section of Iraq's second-biggest city.

World News

'The Old City Will Come Back Better': Residents Of Mosul Return And Rebuild

2:12pm August 23, 2018

by Jane Arraf

More than a year after ISIS was driven out, residents are doing their best to rebuild in historic neighborhoods left in rubble. "Even if no one else came back," a shopkeeper says, "I would come back."

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Human rights activist and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad announced she is engaged to a fellow activist.

World News

Once Held Captive By ISIS, Nadia Murad Is Now Engaged

9:14pm August 22, 2018

by Sasha Ingber

She escaped from forced sexual slavery and became a voice for captive women and girls. Now a United Nations goodwill ambassador, Murad has announced that she is marrying a human rights activist.

World News

ISIS Is Gone But Mosul Residents Still Suffer Dire Conditions

6:54am August 20, 2018

by Jane Arraf

More than a year after the end of the battle of Mosul, the large Iraqi city still has neighborhoods in rubble and a traumatized people trying to rebuild their lives.

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This undated photo provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office shows Omar Ameen, who had been living in California as a refugee and was arrested Wednesday on a warrant alleging he killed an Iraqi policeman while fighting for the Islamic State.

Iraqi Refugee In U.S. Accused Of Committing Murder For ISIS

1:55pm August 16, 2018

by Amy Held

Federal prosecutors say Omar Ameen lied about his terrorism ties to enter the U.S. as a refugee. He is wanted in Iraq over the killing of a police officer in 2014.

Books
Arts

'Baghdad Noir' Presents A City Of Diverse Experiences

7:00am August 12, 2018

by Bethanne Patrick

Akashic Books' Noir series visits Baghdad for its latest installment, and the talented writers collected here manage to wrest compelling noir from a place that's plenty dark already.

Protesters duck as Iraqi security forces fire tear gas during a demonstration against unemployment and a lack of basic services in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday.

World News

Amid Electricity Cuts, Anti-Government Unrest Grows In Southern Iraq

1:52pm July 17, 2018

by Jane Arraf

The protests sweeping Basra and other southern provinces in the past week threaten to destabilize Iraq's caretaker government.

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World News

Unrest In Southern Iraq Continues As Government Cuts Internet

5:11am July 16, 2018

by Jane Arraf

Protests have gripped areas in southern Iraq for several days. The government has cut off access to the Internet, making it more difficult to get accurate information.

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News Brief: What Trump And Putin Want From Their Summit, Plus Iraq Protests

5:11am July 16, 2018

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in Helsinki - why have senators strongly urged Trump not to meet Putin alone? And southern Iraq is in turmoil as protests over jobs and basic services spread.

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The Um Jurius fire base is near Syria's border and Sinjar mountain, where minority Yazidis fled to escape an ISIS genocide in 2014.

From Deep In The Iraqi Desert, A New U.S. Fire Base Targets ISIS In Syria

11:52am July 04, 2018

by Jane Arraf

NPR recently visited the base, where 150 U.S. soldiers and Marines provide support for Iraqi and U.S.-backed Syrian forces.

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