Haider al-Abadi

The scene of hundreds of protesters storming Baghdad’s U.S. installed “Green Zone” and parliament building this past weekend underscored the political challenges facing Iraq, and how the country’s internal turmoil must be resolved in order to defeat the Islamic State, or ISIS, terrorist group.

Meddling by major foreign powers has long played a part in making the Middle East a volatile and dangerous region; Russia in particular has been a malign influence in Syria for decades.

While global attention focuses on Islamic State (ISIS), recent mass protests throughout Iraq have prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to promise what many long believed impossible: tackling the systemic corruption endemic to the Iraqi political system.

Haider al-Abadi made his first visit to the White House April 14 as the prime minister of Iraq and requested expedited delivery of U.S. weapons and F-16s to fight ISIS.

Washington has an agreement with Baghdad on privileges and immunities for the growing number of troops based in Iraq who are helping in the fight against the Islamic State group, the new U.S. ambassador said Thursday.

Goran Mohammed had just completed his second year of university in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil when he dropped out to help his father run the family grocery store. When that still didn’t earn the family enough money, the 19 year old was forced to take a second job as a taxi driver.

America’s top military leader arrived in Iraq on Saturday on a previously unannounced visit, his first since a U.S.-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group.

US-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group and other extremists in Syria have killed more than 860 people, including civilians, since they began in mid-September, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

The attack was the most humiliating the Iraqi military had faced since June, when security forces melted away in the face of the Islamic State group’s lightning advance across northern Iraq.

Iraqi lawmakers approved Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s remaining Cabinet nominees on Saturday, including for the critical defense and interior portfolios, completing the formation of a government that will strive to push the Islamic State extremist group out of the sprawling territory it has seized in recent months.