Abdel Hamid Zebari - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor’s Iraq Pulse. A reporter from Erbil who works in print and radio, he has published in local and international media, including Agence France-Press and Radio Free Iraq (Radio Free Europe).

Kurdish women walk past a truck that was hit in the 1988 chemical attack at the memorial site for victims of the attack in the Kurdish town of Halabja, near Sulaimaniya, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad, March 16, 2013. Iraqi Kurds on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the chemical attack on the northern Iraqi city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein's forces. Up to 5,000 people may have been killed by chemical gas, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps during the 1988 Anfal

Iraqi Kurdistan Fails to Address Violence Against Women

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Iraq's Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi (R) meets with Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani (L) in Baghdad, July 7, 2013. Barzani visited Baghdad on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in a symbolic step to resolve disputes between the central government and the autonomous region over land and oil. The visit follows an equally rare trip by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who met Barzani in Kurdistan last month, breaking ice between leaders who have repeatedly accused each other of vi

Iraqi Kurdish Parties Dispute Law Extending Barzani Presidency

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Female members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi with a drum and flags shout slogans as they rally at the Rabaa Adawiya square, where they are camping at, in Cairo July 11, 2013. Political infighting threatened to stall Egypt's transition plans on Thursday, as the military cracked down on Muslim Brotherhood leaders it blames for inciting a clash in Cairo in which troops shot and killed 53 protesters. Monday's violence between supporters of Mursi, Egypt's fi

Iraqi Kurdistan's Islamist Parties Condemn Egyptian Coup

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Goldsmith shops are seen in a market in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad March 12, 2012. Gunmen often carry out lethal robbery attacks on goldsmith shops mostly in Baghdad, with the latest heist on a gold market on Monday causing the death of nine people. Picture taken March 12, 2012. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ - Tags: CRIME LAW BUSINESS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR2ZBBG

Failed Banking System Prompts Iraqis to Hoard Gold

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

A resident walks at the entrance of a cinema in Baghdad April 26, 2011. Iraq once had 82 cinemas, 64 of them located in the teeming capital, home to about 7 million of Iraq's 30 million people. One by one, they closed during the Saddam era, when the government controlled the selection and importation of films, until only five remained at the time of the invasion. The insurgency that followed and killed tens of thousands of people made Iraqis afraid of being in public places and crowds. They chose the relati

Iraqi Kurdistan Seeks Cinema Revival

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Saddam Hussein (R) stands with his guards behind him at an artillery
piece during the Iraq-Iran war in this undated file photo. The picture
is among exhibits at The Leader's Museum in Baghdad. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair published a dossier on Iraq's weapons programme on
Tuesday which claimed Saddam could launch weapons of mass destruction
at just 45 minutes' notice and was seeking to build a nuclear
capability. REUETRS/Handout

FK - RTRB072

Iraqi Defense Ministry Asks KRG To Return Saddam-Era Weapons

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

A resident jumps into water for a swim at Ahmed Awa tourist resort, known for its waterfalls, near Iraq's border with Iran where three American hikers are believed to have disappeared, near Sulaimaniyah, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad, August 5, 2009. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday he could not confirm whether three Americans had been detained by Iran. Picture taken August 5, 2009. REUTERS/Jamal Penjweny (IRAQ CONFLICT TRAVEL) - RTR26G8J

Iraqi Kurdistan Offers Loans to Tourism Sector

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Nawshirwan Mustafa, an Iraqi Kurdish Politician and the head of Kurdish "Change" opposition movement, shows his ink-stained finger after voting in Sulaimaniya, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad March 7, 2010. Explosions killed 24 people as Iraqis voted on Sunday in an election that Sunni Islamist militants have vowed to disrupt, in one of many challenges to efforts to stabilise Iraq before U.S. troops leave. REUTERS/Jamal Penjweny (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR2BBPU

Iraqi Kurdish Opposition Challenges Draft Constitution

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan makes his address during a meeting with the 'wise people' commission in Istanbul April 4, 2013. Erdogan chaired an inaugural meeting of the 'wise people' commission, who will be consulted on a peace process with Kurdish militants. The commission is made up of academics, journalists and performing artists, and established by the government to promote the peace process nationwide. REUTERS/Metin Pala/Pool (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTXY8EB

Iraqi Kurds Join Pro-Erdogan Protests

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani speaks during an interview with Reuters in Arbil, about 350 km (220 miles) north of Baghdad June 2, 2013. Iraqi Kurdistan will be forced to seek a "new form of relations" with the central government in Baghdad if negotiations fail to resolve their disputes over oil and land, the president of the autonomous region said. Picture taken June 2, 2013. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX10A6R

Barzani Seeks Compromise On Draft Constitution

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

An internally displaced Iraqi man shows his ink-stained finger to the media after voting at a polling centre during the country's provincial elections in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, April 20, 2013. Iraqis voted for provincial councils on Saturday in their first ballot since U.S. troops left the country, a key measure of political strength before parliamentary elections next year. Iraqi politics are deeply split along sectarian lines with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government mired in c

Opposition in Iraqi Kurdistan Questions Population Figures

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari

A Syrian refugee, who fled the violence in Syria, is seen at the Domiz refugee camp in the northern Iraqi of province Dohuk July 25, 2012. The number of refugees that have fled to Iraq's Kurdistan region is in excess of 11,000 refugees, and they are settled in the region's three provinces: Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya. As for the Domiz refugee camp, the number of refugee families reached 696 families, equivalent to 2,800 people, but on the other side of the camp, where young refugees are, the number of refu

Iraqi Kurdistan Region Struggles To Cope With Syrian Refugees

Abdel Hamid Zebari

Abdel Hamid Zebari