Iraq

BAGHDAD, Jun 20 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi health ministry reported yesterday, 13 cases of cholera, mostly in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Of the 13 cases, 10 were detected in the Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah, one in neighbouring Kirkuk Province, and two in the southern province of al-Muthanna, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry urged citizens to pay attention to personal hygiene, and ensure that “water used for drinking and cooking is sterilized.”

20 June 2022; MEMO: Iraq will implement a federal court decision which ruled that all revenues from oil and gas extracted from the area governed by the Kurdish Regional Government must be delivered to Baghdad, the oil minister announced yesterday.

BAGHDAD, Jun 9 (NNN-NINA) – An unidentified drone crashed yesterday, in the north of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, wounding three people, the regional Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said, in a statement.

The drone exploded at 9:35 p.m. local time (1835 GMT), after it crashed in a restaurant in Erbil, some 375 km north of the capital, Baghdad, the CTS statement said.

The explosion also caused damage to the restaurant building and several nearby civilian cars, it added.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Eight months after national elections, Iraq still doesn’t have a government and there seems to be no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.

Political elites are embroiled in cutthroat competition for power, even as the country faces growing challenges, including an impending food crisis resulting from severe drought and the war in Ukraine.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A sandstorm blanketed parts of the Middle East on Monday, including Iraq, Syria and Iran, sending people to hospitals and disrupting flights in some places.

It was the latest in a series of unprecedented nearly back-to-back sandstorms this year that have bewildered residents and raised alarm among experts and officials, who blame climate change and poor governmental regulations.

BAGHDAD, May 22 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi Ministry of Health said yesterday that, up to 90 cases of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) have been registered in Iraq, including 18 deaths.

“There has been a serious increase in the VHF cases in Iraq recently, and the number of registered cases could rise further, if some other suspected cases are confirmed,” the ministry’s spokesman, Sayf al-Badr, said at a press conference.

The first VHF case was detected in Dhi Qar last month, and later more cases were discovered in several other provinces, he added.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court Sunday postponed the trial of two European tourists charged with antiquities smuggling after their lawyers argued more information was needed about the ancient shards found in their possession.

The defense team for German national Volker Waldman filed a motion in court saying there was insufficient information about the value of the pieces Iraqi officials found on him. He was charged alongside Jim Fitton, 66, a retired British geologist.

Baghdad’s felony court postponed the case until June 6.

19 May 2022; MEMO: Iraq has made a fresh attempt to control revenue from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan by asking oil and gas firms operating there to sign new contracts with state-owned marketer, SOMO, rather than the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Reuters reports.

Oil Minister, Ihsan Ismael, on 7 May said Iraq's Oil Ministry would start implementing a February federal court ruling that deemed the legal foundations of the Kurdistan region's oil and gas sector unconstitutional.

18 May 2022; MEMO: Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is scheduled to meet his Saudi counterpart Faisal Bin Farhan in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, an Iranian lawmaker announced yesterday.

Javad Karimi-Ghodousi told the Fars News Agency that there was "no development" since the talks that began in April 2021 between Tehran and Riyadh.

He said that the upcoming meeting would discuss "bilateral relations, the opening of embassies, and regional issues, especially the Yemen war."

15 May 2022; MEMO: Forces from the regional Kurdish government have taken control of some oil wells in northern Kirkuk, Iraq's state-run North Oil Company said in a statement on Saturday, but the Kurdish government denied this, Reuters reports.

It said the forces arrived with a technical team from the Kurdish region and took over some of the oil wells in the Bai Hassan oilfield, which is controlled by the North Oil Company.

The statement did not say when the forces arrived and whether they were still there.