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Iraqi Kurdistan

Israeli national Ben Hassin, who was jailed for killing a taxi driver in an unnamed Arab country, where he went to fight Islamic State. (Courtesy)
September 19, 2026, 12:36 am
‘Another chance at life’: Israeli freed from Iraqi Kurdish prison returns home
Ben Hassin, a Kurdish Jew who also holds Canadian citizenship, recalls struggling to maintain hope after initial death sentence for killing cab driver, says he was held in a jail where ‘they can seriously hurt you for being Israeli and Jewish’
By ToI Staff
Israeli national Ben Hassin, who was jailed for killing a taxi driver in an unnamed Arab country, where he went to fight Islamic State. (Courtesy)
September 16, 2026, 9:46 pm
Israeli-Kurdish Jew freed from Iraqi prison after 11 years for killing cab driver
Ben Hassin, also a Canadian citizen, was sentenced to death after killing driver who threatened to hand him to ISIS in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2015; he’s expected to get to Israel in coming days
By Lazar Berman and ToI Staff
Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, gives a press conference in the autonomous region’s capital Erbil on June 25, 2025. (Safin HAMID/AFP)
August 18, 2026, 10:40 am
Iraq probing drone strike on Kurdistan PM’s office, as Iran warns of ‘false-flag ploys’
Tehran, which kept bombing Iraqi Kurdish opposition groups during ceasefire, hints ‘reckless attack’ on office of autonomous region’s leader Masrour Barzani is bid ‘to sow discord’
By Christy-Belle Geha
This combo image shows then-director of US National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (L) in a White House briefing on July 23, 2025, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Ahmad Vahidi im Tehran, Iran, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
August 16, 2026, 7:27 pm
US had secret backchannel with IRGC, learned it supports Iran’s negotiators – report
Axios says then-intel chief Tulsi Gabbard contacted top Iraqi Kurdish official in May to ascertain Revolutionary Guard’s position on talks; Iran sets $30,000 bounty for US soldiers
By ToI Staff and Agencies
Members of the Kurdistan Freedom Party PAK stand guard in Erbil, Iraq, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Rashid Yahya)
March 29, 2026, 3:01 pm
US-Israeli plan for Kurdish invasion of Iran reportedly collapsed amid leaks, distrust
Mossad hoped ground campaign could ignite wider rebellion, but after plan was leaked, Iran bolstered defenses and regional US allies lobbied Trump to call it off, report says
By ToI Staff
A female Kurdish fighter from the Iranian Kurdish armed faction Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) passes a poster of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), at a site near the Iraqi border with Iran in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on March 8, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
March 9, 2026, 4:34 pm
Kurdish rebels say they’re prepared to ‘resist’ Iran, while awaiting uprising
Holed up in Iraqi mountains, militants voice ambivalence about US intervention but say they’re in contact with Americans; no current plans for ground offensive
By AFP
Member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan PDKI stands at a checkpoint leading to their base in Koya district of Irbil, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Rashid Yahya)
March 5, 2026, 12:42 pm
Iran says it hit Kurdish forces in Iraq, as some groups plan to join fight against Tehran
Kurdish dissident groups say the US has asked them to support its efforts against the regime; Iran warns it will not tolerate ‘separatist groups’ and claims it damaged headquarters
By Agencies and ToI Staff
Illustrative: A militiaman of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group, stands behind his truck-mounted machine gun near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, September 5, 2016. (Balint Szlanko/AP)
March 4, 2026, 8:22 am
US in talks with Iranian Kurds on potential CIA-backed op for uprising – sources
Groups have asked for support; plan would be to take on Iran’s security forces in west of country, enabling citizen revolt against regime
By Reuters and ToI Staff
Illustrative: Newly graduated Iraqi army officers take part in a military parade during the Army Day celebrations at Military College in Baghdad on January 6, 2026. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
January 18, 2026, 7:16 pm
Iraq announces full withdrawal of US-led coalition from non-Kurdish regions
Baghdad says former US military sites to ‘come under the full control of Iraqi security forces,’ some two years after the US reached a deal to pull forces from Iraq
By AFP
An airplane model at a roundabout near Erbil airport in the capital of Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region on April 15, 2021. (Safin Hamid / AFP)
July 4, 2025, 12:03 pm
Drone downed near Iraqi Kurdistan airport where US-led coalition troops are based
No damage or injuries caused at Erbil airport, only one flight delayed; explosive UAV also falls near Kirkuk airport
By AFP
Rabbi Asher Lopatin (left) visits the Tomb of Nahum in the town of Alqosh in Iraqi Kurdistan in April 2025. (Courtesy)
July 1, 2025, 1:46 am
In Iraq, restored tomb of biblical prophet Nahum quietly attracts Jewish pilgrimage
Despite geopolitical tensions, dozens of Jews, including Israelis, have journeyed to shrine in Kurdish city of Alqosh since its rehabilitation in 2022, says project organizer
By Rossella Tercatin
Khalil Naderi, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, a separatist Iranian Kurdish group based in Iraq, poses for a portrait at a party office in an undisclosed location in Iraq's Irbil governorate, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Rashid Yahya)
June 27, 2025, 2:32 pm
Iranian Kurdish dissidents abroad watch for signs of Tehran’s vulnerability
As a fragile ceasefire with Israel holds, some wonder how much the war has weakened Iran’s clerical rule but fear premature action
By Stella Martany and Ellen Knickmeyer
Yazidi men sit together during sunset in the Sharya displacement camp in the Duhok area of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, June 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Zimmermann)
July 29, 2024, 12:54 pm
10 years on, many Yazidis uprooted by ISIS onslaught still struggle to find stability
Members of devastated community are trickling back home to Sinjar district after a decade of displacement, but despite their homeland’s deep significance, many see no future there
By ABBY SEWELL and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
A member of the Kurdistan Center for Arts and Culture (KCAC) scans the pages of an old book as part of an effort to digitize historic Kurdish volumes and manuscripts, in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on February 13, 2024. (Safin HAMID / AFP)
March 10, 2024, 9:32 am
‘Sacred job’: Iraqi Kurds digitize aging manuscripts to save vulnerable culture
Archival crew pursues rare documents that offer insight into nation’s history, carefully scans them for website set to launch in April
By AFP
This image taken from video provided by Rudaw TV shows smoke rising from a building hit by a strike in Erbil, Iraq, January 16, 2024. (Rudaw TV via AP)
January 16, 2024, 3:06 am
Iran’s IRGC claims to target Mossad spy center in missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi officials report 4 civilians killed in strikes that the Revolutionary Guards describe as a response to Israel recently ‘martyring IRGC and resistance commanders’
By Agencies and ToI Staff
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