Iraqi special forces hunt Isis in lowlands south of Kirkuk, where the militants keep on the move, seeking to regain territorial control

Washington has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats said, a step Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone.

North Korea state media condemned the United States for the drone attack that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, calling the event a "violation of Iraqi sovereignty." The statement on recent events in the Middle East came the same day Iran launched dozens of ballistic missiles targeting Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops.

Iran fired rockets early on Wednesday at Iraq's al Asad airbase

Iraqi security forces shot dead at least 45 protesters on Thursday

U.S. forces that crossed into Iraq as part of a pull-out from Syria do not have permission to stay and can only be there in transit, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday.

A 3,400-year-old palace has emerged from a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after water levels dropped because of drought. The discovery should yield more light on the mysterious Mittani Empire.

The United States has spent nearly $6 trillion on wars that directly contributed to the deaths of around 500,000 people since the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs published its annual "Costs of War" report Wednesday, taking into consideration the Pentagon's spending and its Overseas Contingency Operations account, as well as "war-related spending by the Department of State, past and obligated spending for war veterans’ care, interest on the debt incurred to pay for the wars, and the prevention of and response to terrorism by the Department of Homeland Security."

While I was embedded with the US Army in Iraq, I heard a story about two soldiers killing a child in cold blood. I've spent 16 years trying to find out the truth.

The generosity of Minnesotans reaches far and wide, now extending all the way to a library in Iraq. This week, thousands of books arrived at the library at the University of Mosul, a shipment organized by the Minneapolis-based Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP). The library was destroyed when ISIS militants occupied the city in 2014. The library had stood as a cultural and educational epicenter in Iraq until ISIS fighters demolished the building. They methodically destroyed almost all of the one million books, manuscripts and historic maps inside.

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— In what some are calling the “new normal” in Iraq, a slew of women known for their popularity on social media or for owning beauty salons have been killed. Perhaps no one understands this phenomenon first-hand better than Miss Iraq 2015, Shimaa Qasim Abdul Rahman. The native Kurd from Kirkuk recently left the country after the death of fellow Iraqi beauty queen and social media star Tara Fares who was shot dead in her car in Baghdad on September 27.

Iraqi social media star and model Tara Fares has been shot dead in Baghdad, security officials confirmed to CNN. The death of Fares and other recent killings prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order an investigation on Friday. The former Miss Baghdad, and first runner-up for Miss Iraq, was killed on Thursday after gunmen opened fire on her in the capital's Camp Sarah neighborhood, according to a statement by Iraq's Interior Ministry, which is investigating the incident.

Iraqi social media star and model Tara Fares has been shot dead in Baghdad, security officials confirmed to CNN. The death of Fares and other recent killings prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order an investigation on Friday. The former Miss Baghdad, and first runner-up for Miss Iraq, was killed on Thursday after gunmen opened fire on her in the capital's Camp Sarah neighborhood, according to a statement by Iraq's Interior Ministry, which is investigating the incident.

A court in Baghdad sentenced to death a senior Islamic State figure and former deputy to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Ismail Alwaan al-Ithawi was sentenced on Wednesday, September 19 to death by hanging, said Judge Abdul Sattar Birkdar, spokesperson for the Supreme Judicial council. Ithawi, who went by the kunya, or nom de guerre, Abu Zeid al-Iraqi is an Iraqi national in charge of ISIS’s religious rulings and education curriculum, and sat on an important leadership committee.

The task of meeting protesters' demands will serve as a test for the Iraqi prime minister and increase public pressure to form a new government. By Ibrahim Al-Marashi.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday ordered the immediate execution of all convicted "terrorists" of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, on death row, in swift retaliation for the group's execution of eight captives. Abadi "ordered the immediate execution of terrorists condemned to death whose sentences have passed the decisive stage", his office said, referring to convicts whose appeals have been exhausted.

Iraq captured five Islamic State commanders after its intelligence services lured them into crossing from neighboring Syria, Iraqi state TV reported Wednesday. It described the five as "some of the most wanted" leaders of ISIS. They were named as Saddam al-Jammel, Mohamed al-Qadeer, Ismail al-Eithawi, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai and were shown in yellow prisoner uniforms. The New York Times reported that the group were captured as part of a sting operation carried out in coordination with U.S. intelligence. NBC News was note immediately able to verify that report.

Islamic State said it would attack polling stations in Iraq during parliamentary election next month and that anyone who participated in the vote would be considered an infidel. In an audio message released late on Sunday, the militant group's spokesman accused Iraq's government of being a proxy of Iran and warned that anyone who runs or votes in the 12 May election would be targeted.

Brushing aside warnings that he was about to unleash Armageddon in the Middle East, George W. Bush launched an unprovoked attack on Iraq on March 19-20, 2003, the ramifications of which we are still grappling with today, Nat Parry writes.

Thirty-nine missing Indian workers, who were taken hostage by ISIL in the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been killed, India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday. The minister told Rajya Sabha - the upper house of parliament - the government had received confirmation on Monday that the DNA of 38 bodies found in a mass grave had been definitively identified as matching the missing Indians.