Haider Al-Abadi

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 and Iraq have agreed on full cooperation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi saying his government has taken new measures to increase border security. 

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is to visit Turkey and Iran next week, an official said on Aug. 11.

Iraq put to death 12 people convicted of terrorism hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for speedy executions, in response to the kidnapping and killing of eight members of the security forces, the government said on Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 10 that the burning of a storage site in Baghdad where ballot boxes were kept was part of a plot to harm Iraq's democratic process, the first government indication the incident was deliberate.

This file photo show Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım (L) with his Iraqi counterpart, Haider al-Abadi during a joint press conference in Baghdad on Jan 7. / AA Photo

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's list appears to be leading in Iraq's parliamentary election, followed by influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's alliance, an election commission source and a security official told Reuters on May 13.

 U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Iran on Thursday of "mucking around" in Iraq's May parliamentary election, in which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is seeking another term after a successful, U.S.-backed war against Islamic State militants, Reuters reported.

Iraq has lifted the ban on international flights to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) airports, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement on March 13. 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım spoke with his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi over the phone on Jan. 15, according to a Turkish Prime Ministry source.