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Alex Poppe for Informed Comment
I taught at an international school in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq from 2011 to 2013. I returned to the Kurdish region to teach at a university in Sulaimaniyah from 2015 to 2021. I traveled to Baghdad several times to speak at conferences, train teachers for Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education, and recruit students. Watching war in a country you used to call home from a county you now call home is a quicksand feeling, threatening to suck you under.
When Iran, Israel, and the U.S. fight, their conflict plays out in Iraq. Pro-Tehran armed groups and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attack US bases and assets. The US has a presence at Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Anbar province. US and coalition forces train and share intelligence at the Erbil Air Base in Kurdistan. The US maintains military facilities such as Camp Victoria near the Baghdad International Airport and Harir Air Base, northeast of Erbil. Iran also attacks Iranian Kurdish nationalist groups which operate from Kurdistan. In turn, the US attacks pro-Iranian groups operating in Iraq.
Many of my university students remember the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent sectarian violence. One student recalled being dragged into the cold courtyard of his family compound with his father, brothers, and grandfather during a house raid in the Anbar province. All the men were made to kneel in the cold courtyard and were beaten. My student was 12 years old. When I asked him how he didn’t hate Americans, he told me, “Iraq didn’t break because of the invasion. Iraq broke because the people of Iraq didn’t stand together,” He meant that the people who live in Iraq identified themselves along tribal, sectarian, or ethnic lines rather than by nationality. This lack of a strong national identity shapes Iraq’s political and security landscape, preventing it from maintaining a coherent foreign policy.
According to Renad Mansour, senior research fellow and director of the Chatham House’s Iraq Initiative, “Different parts of the Iraqi political and security landscape are aligned with competing external powers: Some factions maintain close ties with Iran, while others are more closely connected to the US.” Shia armed groups, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al Haq, have been absorbed into Iraq’s security institutions since they helped defeat ISIS in 2017. They are also part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), hold influence over decision-making and security issues in Iraq, and support Iran’s geopolitical interests. The US maintains a long-standing partnership with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Peshmerga, (Kurdistan’s security forces which are aligned along political party), various Sunni factions to counter Shia-led dominance in Baghdad, and segments of the Iraqi Armed Forces. During this latest conflict, US air defense systems have intercepted most incoming drones and missiles.
Because pro-Iranian groups are deeply entrenched in Iraq’s security infrastructure, and Iraq hosts key US bases and assets, Iraq is vulnerable to attacks. On April 20, 12 days after a ceasefire was reached, the US Embassy in Baghdad warned of Iran-backed threats: “Iraqi terrorist militias aligned with Iran continue to plot additional attacks against U.S. citizens and targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR). Some elements associated with the Iraqi government continue to actively provide political, financial, and operational cover for these terrorist militias.”
Kurdistan is especially at risk for continued attacks due to its proximity to Iran and to the Iranian Kurdish opposition fighters who have bases and camps in Kurdistan. Iran has designated them as terrorist groups serving US and Israeli interests and attacked them after the April 8 ceasefire was reached. The KRG documented that at least 809 drones and missiles targeted the Kurdish Region between February 28, when the US-Israeli war on Iran began, and April 20. Twenty people have been killed and 121 people have been injured.
File photo. Iraqi army soldiers transport a litter during a training exercise at Ain Al Asad Air Force Base, Iraq, May 3, 2011. (Photo by: Pfc. Brian Chaney). Public Domain. Via Picryl
As Iraq works to choose a new prime minister, the US Treasury Department has blocked a cargo plane shipment of $500 million dollars to Iraq. This money comes from Iraq oil revenues, which has been held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The US has also halted some security cooperation activities such as intelligence sharing with the Iraqi military. At the same time, Tehran and the Badr Brigade, Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al Haq, Iraq’s powerful armed groups, are pushing for Iraq to choose a prime minister aligned with Iran.
According to the 1973 War Powers Resolution, President Trump has until May 1 to obtain congressional approval to continue the war in Iran or to reach a peace agreement (unless he finds a workaround.) Even if the president finds a way to end the conflict in Iran, Iraq will probably remain vulnerable to proxy wars.
Alex Poppe , having worked in conflict zones such as Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine, Alex Poppe writes about fierce women rebuilding their lives in the wake of violence. Breakfast Wine, a memoir-in-essay about her near ten years in Iraq, will be published by Apprentice House Press on June 10, 2025 and is available for pre-order here. She is the author of four works of fiction: Duende by Regal House Publishing (2022), Jinwar and Other Stories by Cune Press (2022), Moxie by Tortoise Books (2019), and Girl, World by Laughing Fire Press (2017). Girl, World was named a 35 Over 35 Debut Book Award winner, First Horizon Award finalist, Montaigne Medal finalist, short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and was awarded an Honorable Mention in General Fiction from the Eric Hoffer Awards. Her short fiction has been a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Family Matters contest, a nominee for the Pushcart Prize and commended for the Baker Prize among others.
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