Qassim AbdulZahra

Read the latest stories and analysis from Qassim AbdulZahra.

Civilians inspect the aftermath of a car bomb explosion in the morning in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Baladiyat, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2014. After nightfall Friday, the car bomb exploded near a cafe killing and wounding tens of people, Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

National Security

Iraq lawmakers approve interior, defense ministers

Qassim AbdulZahra · October 18, 2014 9:23 pm

Islamic State group downs another Iraqi helicopter

Qassim AbdulZahra · October 8, 2014 7:51 pm

Iraqi police officials: Baghdad car bomb kills 13

Iraqi police officials: Baghdad car bomb kills 13

Qassim AbdulZahra · October 7, 2014 3:23 pm

Iraqi security forces inspect the lifeless bodies of a militant from the Islamic State group after clashes, near the town of Jbala, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. (AP Photo)

Islamic State group publicly kills 6 Iraqi troops

Qassim AbdulZahra · October 5, 2014 2:44 pm

9 killed in attacks targeting Iraq’s military

9 killed in attacks targeting Iraq’s military

Qassim AbdulZahra · October 4, 2014 11:29 am

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 file photo, Iraqi lawmakers attend a session to approve the new government in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's parliament rejected defense and interior nominees on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, leaving the crucial ministerial posts unfilled as a U.S.-led coalition intensifies its air campaign against Islamic extremists who have seized a third of the country. The two powerful security portfolios have long been a source of tension among Iraq's feuding political factions, and the failure to agree on the nominees marked the latest in a series of delays in forming a unified government that can confront the Islamic State extremist group. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)

National Security

Iraq parliament rejects interior, defense nominees

Qassim AbdulZahra · September 16, 2014 6:56 pm

Iraqi PM renounces British citizenship by law

Iraqi PM renounces British citizenship by law

Qassim AbdulZahra · September 14, 2014 8:52 am

In this Friday, July 11, 2014 photo, an Islamic militant speaks to people during a celebration of their declaration of an Islamic state at a mosque in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Sunni militants seized control of the Anbar city of Fallujah, and parts of Ramadi in January. The government has since reasserted its control of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in insurgent hands. (AP Photo)

UN warns Iraq of ‘chaos’ if no political progress

Qassim AbdulZahra · July 12, 2014 11:38 pm

People inspect the site of a car bomb attack on cars lined up at a gas station in the oil rich city of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, Thursday, July 10, 2014. The lightning sweep by the militants over much of northern and western Iraq the past month has dramatically hiked tensions between the country's Shiite majority and Sunni minority. At the same time, splits have grown between the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.(AP Photo)

Iraq’s Kurds will boycott Cabinet meetings

Qassim AbdulZahra · July 10, 2014 8:39 pm

Mourners carry the flag-draped coffin of Abdullah Swadi, a member of an Iraqi volunteer forces group who was killed during clashes with Islamic militants, his family said, during his funeral procession in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)

Iraqi parliament to meet early next week

Qassim AbdulZahra · July 8, 2014 10:02 pm

Electoral workers carry ballot boxes at a counting center in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Iraq voted Wednesday in its first nationwide election since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confident of victory and even offering an olive branch to his critics by inviting them to join him in a governing coalition. (AP Photo/Nabil Al-Jurani)

Iraq: Al-Maliki calls vote ‘slap’ to terrorism

Qassim AbdulZahra · May 1, 2014 5:41 pm

Friends of Mustafa Mounir, 19, chant slogans against the al-Qaida breakaway group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while carrying his flag-draped coffin during his funeral procession in Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 18, 2014. Mustafa Mounir was killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad on Thursday, his family said. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)

Bombs targeting soldiers, shoppers kill 16 in Iraq

Qassim AbdulZahra · April 19, 2014 6:41 pm