Quiet Fronts

Regional desk

Middle East

Under-covered stories from Middle East, ranked by the gap between importance and coverage.

01Middle EastIQ22h agoUnder-covered

‘We are vulnerable’: Kurds fear renewed attacks as US‑led coalition departs Iraq

‘We are vulnerable’: Kurds fear renewed attacks as US‑led coalition departs Iraq Wladimir van Wilgenburg on Thu, 10/01/2026 - 11:02 As Washington ends its decade‑long mission in Iraq, Kurds warn autonomous region is at risk amid US-Iran tensions Kurdish Peshmerga fighters about 60km south of Erbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, on 30 September 2026 (Safin Hamid/AFP) Off On 28 September, residents of Erbil heard military aircraft overhead as the US‑led coalition against the Islamic State group (IS) was preparing for its full withdrawal. That same night, three Iranian drones hit a camp belonging to an Iranian Kurdish opposition party in Koya. Two days later, Koya was hit again by a drone, the first such attack after the coalition’s departure. On Wednesday, the US‑led coalition ended its more than decade‑long mission in Iraq, a mission that began in 2014 when IS seized large territories in Iraq and Syria and carried out mass atrocities. Although the militant group was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, coalition forces remained to help contain its remnants. In 2024, Baghdad and Washington agreed to wind down the mission, prompting a gradual withdrawal from bases across Iraq and a final consolidation in the Kurdistan Region before the complete pullout, scheduled for 30 September. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The latest incidents in Koya underscore how exposed the Iraqi Kurdistan Region remains to drone and missile attacks amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States. According to a 27 September statement from the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs – the military forces of the autonomous Kurdish region – Iraqi Kurdistan has endured more than a thousand drone and ballistic missile attacks since Israel and the US launched the war on Iran on 28 February, causing casualties and significant material damage. 'The threat is real – we are vulnerable, we are being attacked

Global importance100
World coverage0

1 source · no Western pickup

02Middle EastYE2d agoUnder-covered

Houthi missile hits Yemen government base in Lahj as mountain battles intensify

A Houthi ballistic missile struck a Yemeni government military base in Lahj province on Tuesday as heavy fighting raged across a chain of mountains in the area, with a local official and media reports reporting at least eight soldiers killed or wounded. The Aden‑based outlet Aden Al‑Ghad said the strike on the Nation Shield Forces’ 1st Division base in Khor Amira killed five soldiers and wounded three. There was no immediate official casualty toll from government authorities. The missile attack

Global importance100
World coverage0

1 source · no Western pickup

03Middle EastPS6d agoUnder-covered

Try as it might, Israel could not destroy Palestinian culture and joy in Gaza

Try as it might, Israel could not destroy Palestinian culture and joy in Gaza Gregory Shupak on Tue, 09/01/2026 - 20:00 Victims of the Gaza genocide include countless artists, poets, filmmakers, educators and musicians - but the enclave's collective spirit will never die Children dance in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees, in the central Gaza Strip, on 1 October 2024 (Eyad Baba/AFP) Off In 2012, the United Nations warned that the Gaza Strip might not be a “a liveable place” by 2020. As scholar Norman Finkelstein often commented, the UN meant physically uninhabitable, not unliveable in a “poetic sense”.  But the genocide that Israel began in 2023 is different.  The extermination campaign is not only about pulverising the Gaza Strip and killing Palestinians en masse. It can also be understood as a war on joy and love - one seemingly designed to make Gaza unliveable in a poetic sense.  Genocide is defined in part as “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Israel has been shown over and over again to be imposing that biological destruction on Palestinians in Gaza.  Yet it is also inflicting “conditions of life” clearly calculated to bring about Palestinians’ cultural destruction - to make the enclave spiritually dead, soulless. The aim, it seems, is to make life in Gaza so barren and atomised that the Palestinians living there will leave, submit or die. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In July, Israel killed Mohamed al-Wahidi, a Palestinian aid worker who organised World Cup watch parties. He was, according to his family, on his way to watch Egypt play Argentina at a screening of the game he helped make accessible to large numbers of people in Gaza City.  The Israeli air strike killed at least three other people, including brothers Fari and Hamza al-Deri, aged eight and 10, who were on their way home from playing

Global importance100
World coverage0

1 source · no Western pickup