Najaf

One person died in Iraq and more than 5,000 were treated in hospitals on May 5 for respiratory ailments due to a sandstorm, the seventh in a month, the Health Ministry said.

Pope Francis extended his hand to the world's Shiite Muslims on March 6, meeting top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in a landmark moment in modern religious history.

The two elderly, respected men of religion met at Sistani's humble home in the shrine city of Najaf early on Saturday, the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq.

Iraq's president on March 17 named ex-Najaf city governor Adnan Zurfi as the new prime minister, tasked with ruling a country hit by street protests, military unrest and now the coronavirus pandemic.

The nomination came hours after two rockets hit an Iraqi military base hosting U.S-led coalition and NATO troops, the third such attack within a week, without causing casualties.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on Jan. 3, asking its citizens to delay trips to Iraq amid the strained tension in the country. 

The Iraqi military and the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIL said on Jan. 4 it did not conduct any airstrikes near Camp Taji north of Baghdad.

Earlier on Jan. 4, Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups said airstrikes near camp Taji had killed six people and critically wounded three.

Iraqi state television had said they were U.S. airstrikes.

The president of Iraq’s Kurdish region warned on Friday that the Kurds might be forced to retaliate if the central government persists with what his spokesman called a “very aggressive” stance toward the pro-independence referendum.

A cholera outbreak in Iraq has spread to Kuwait and Bahrain, and risks turning into a region-wide epidemic as millions of pilgrims prepare to visit the country, UNICEF's Iraq director said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said July 27 that he had presented a report on this month's landmark deal on Iran's nuclear energy program to Iranian-born Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in southern Iraq.

Thousands of Iraqi forces have laid siege to jihadists holed up in Tikrit but the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) shrugged off setbacks by welcoming Nigeria's Boko Haram group into its "caliphate".
      
After making major gains in and around the city Wednesday, commanders were confident that Baghdad's biggest victory yet against ISIL was only a matter of time.

Turkey has been doing its best to reach out to Iraqi Turkmens caught in the middle of sectarian strife in neighboring Iraq, the head of a government aid agency has said, in an apparent response to criticism that the government has been ignoring the plight of Turkmens.