Sunnis back party of Iraq's youngest-ever parliamentary speaker - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East al-monitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from al-monitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Islamic State takes border station in Iraqi desert with drug smuggling wali A recent incident along Iraq’s western border and alleged connections between drug smuggling and Islamic State cells in the area have raised concern. An Iraqi Shiite fighter from a Popular Mobilization Units rides his motorbike in Qaim on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria on Nov. 12, 2018. - AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
May 8, 2021
BAGHDAD Orders to arrest three Iraqi border guard commanders in late April after positions were abandoned and equipment and weaponry were left to alleged Islamic State (IS) attackers seemed to show seriousness on the part of the government but also fostered concern.
Anbar tribes key to security, political backing ahead of Iraq s October vote Following the introduction of a new electoral law and with many of the region’s population still looking more toward their tribes for protection than the central government, Iraq’s Sunni-dominant Anbar province is likely to be highly affected by tribal relations and figures in the October elections. Iraqis attend a conference gathering Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders and clerics on November 8, 2014, in the capital, Baghdad, to discuss support to Sunni tribes in their fight against the Islamist State (IS) in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. - AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
Kataib Hezbollah controls access points to key Iraqi border city Iran-linked armed groups have over the past year tightened and consolidated their grip on a key border area between Iraq and Syria, preventing journalists from entering and local residents from farming their land.
Members of the Popular Mobilization Units wave the faction flag during a symbolic funeral ceremony in the central holy city of Karbala, on the anniversary of the airstrikes by US planes on several bases belonging to the Hezbollah brigades near al-Qaim, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2020.
April 17, 2021
AL-OBEIDI, Iraq Roughly a dozen young men in black, olive green and camouflage mull around below the arches of the Sheikh Haidar checkpoint between the town of al-Obeidi and the border city of Qaim.