Exclusive: Coronavirus in Iraq, Protests Continue // FAI ONLINE

The body temperature of an Iraqi woman returning from Iran is measured upon her arrival at the Najaf International Airport on February 21, 2020, after Iran announced cases of coronavirus infections in the Islamic republic. (Credit: Haidar Hamdani, AFP)

The list of suspected cases of Coronavirus in Iraq grew on Tuesday, with at least eight suspected cases now reported in the southern city of Najaf and at least four in the northern city of Kirkuk. Kurdish and Iraqi authorities closed their border crossings with Iran last weekend after Iran publicly admitted to the spread of the deadly disease within their borders, after denying the scope of the outbreak for weeks. In the interim, thousands of Iranians and Iraqi nationals crossed back and forth between the two nations, many of them on pilgrimages to Shi’a Muslim religious sites. Turkey has now warned its citizens against travelling to Iraq, and the nation’s border crossing with Kuwait has also been closed.

In the autonomous Kurdish region, the provincial government of Sulaymaniyah, which borders Iran, announced that schools would be closed for a month. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also announced that over 200 individuals who had recently crossed the border from Iran into Kurdish territory were being quarantined in three facilities near the border. Although there are no suspected cases among those quarantined yet, the late onset of coronavirus symptoms will require them to remain sequestered for some time. FAI field teams based in the Kurdish city of Rawanduz are only a few kilometers away from the quarantine facilities, and FAI medical staff were invited to partner with local political and religious authorities in providing training and treatment to the quarantined patients as well as the community-at-large.

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FAI field teams working in and around the Rawanduz Gateway Center (near the Iranian border in Iraqi Kurdistan) are providing training and treatment programs to quarantine patients and needy communities which are under-served and highly vulnerable to coronavirus. This is a critical and timely effort with unique opportunities. Will you partner with us?

Despite the public health risk, Iraqis are still taking to the streets this week in protest against the central government in Baghdad. Demonstrations swelled in the Shiite-majority cities of Basra and Nasiriyah, while Iranian-backed militias opened fire on protesters in Khalani Square, Baghdad, killing one. The latest unrest comes after the new Iraqi prime minister, Muhammad Allawi, announced a parliamentary vote to elect his new cabinet on Wednesday. Young demonstrators are disillusioned with rampant corruption and Iranian influence in Iraqi politics, and the recent election of Allawi was largely seen as a nod to the ayatollahs in Tehran.

Leading Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has taken a larger role in Iraqi protests in the last month after a recent political agreement with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and their proxy militias inside Iraq (PMU’s), turning his Sadr Militia against the protest movement which he had previously fought to protect. In public comments in Iraqi media on Tuesday, al-Sadr referred to Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the KRG as a “militia” which should be “disbanded.”

The ascendancy of a Shi’a super-bloc in the Iraqi parliament with close ties to Iran raises concerns for the KRG and Peshmerga, who fought a brief conflict with Iranian-linked militias in 2017 for control of the disputed territories of Kirkuk and Sinjar. The Peshmerga played a primary role in blunting the advance of ISIS across Iraq in the summer of 2014, protecting the civilians of Kirkuk and Sinjar from the Islamic State. They are now closely allied with US-led Coalition forces in Operation Inherent Resolve. The Coalition has been expanding its presence in the Kurdish region recently as attacks against American forces by the same Iranian-linked militias have forced the Coalition to rethink it’s deployment of troops in the ongoing fight against the remnants of ISIS.