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AMWAJDinar devaluation fuels showdown over Iraq’s 2027 budget5HRUDAWIraqi PM defends dinar devaluation amid public anger9HTHE NEW REGIONCoordination Framework slams dinar devaluation, proposes relief measures9HTHE NEW REGIONDrones target Iranian Kurdish opposition group in Erbil province10HSHAFAQTwo-drone attack targets refugee camp in Erbil10HSHAFAQPM Al-Zaidi explains 1,500-dinar dollar rate to parliament12HKURDISTAN24Iraqi PM: Speculators Benefited from Previous Dollar Rate Differential12HSHAFAQSource: Iraqi leaders backed dollar hike before announcement13HIRAQI NEWSSyria to provide alternative route for Iraq’s oil exports13HTHE NEW REGIONIraqi PM Zaidi to appear in parliament over dinar devaluation: MP14HIRAQI NEWSIraq offers $2.80 per barrel discount for November oil sales15HSHAFAQIraq targets zero North Oil flaring by 202715HSHAFAQPKK: All fighters withdrawn from Turkiye15HAPIraq rejects Syrian request to repatriate 4,000 suspected IS detainees, official says15HINAIraq and Kuwait Discuss Developing Security Cooperation and Enhancing the Security of Their Shared Border16H964 MEDIAFederal agency arrests terrorism suspect in Erbil in joint operation with Kurdish forces16H
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IRAQ MONITOR · THE BRIEFING

The Daily Digest

MONDAY, 17 AUGUST 2026 · MORNING EDITION

The Daily Digest

Drones struck the Kurdistan Regional Government prime minister's office in Erbil this morning and the residence of the region's counterterrorism chief, in an attack the Kurdistan Region's counterterrorism service attributed to Iran. Reuters reported the strike on the KRG premier's office, and the counterterrorism service named Iranian drones and both sites; a second account carried the same attribution, with no Tehran acknowledgement in any of the three reports. The strikes came the same day reporting emerged that Nechirvan Barzani secretly mediated between Washington and the Revolutionary Guards — the same channel attributed a day earlier to Masoud Barzani. The two Barzani attributions do not agree on which man ran the channel. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the evening before the strikes, urged expedited delivery of advanced air defense systems and discussed bolstering air defense in light of recent strikes.

On the economy, Finance Minister Taif Sami said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz left "direct effects" on Iraq's economy and committed the ministry to boosting non-oil revenues, a shift Kurdistan24 set against a deepening Hormuz crisis. An energy report published hours later warned that oil and power vulnerabilities threaten economic stability, and the Energy Information Administration reported US crude imports from Iraq at zero for a seventh consecutive week while Iraqi exports overall reached two million barrels per day. Baghdad is meanwhile moving to raise electricity imports from neighbouring countries, and Iran expanded its Qasr-e Shirin free zone to boost trade with Iraq.

Verified figures published from the state audit reached 2,943, against 1,042 read three days earlier, and published audit tables rose to 290 from 88 over the same span — the desk's own count of what the audit machine has put in public view since the seizures began. Authorities have since arrested former lawmaker Kazem Sayadi in an extortion case, and MPs responding to the roughly $6 million taken in the latest case called for enforcement to be applied equally rather than to selected officials.

On the security file, a spokesman said entities outside the Popular Mobilization Forces Commission will be handled by negotiation, the day before five militia-linked channels across four factions relayed the identical committee line that the PMF law project reaches parliament at month's end, as set out in today's militia digest. Over the same two days a faction leader denounced what he called American hegemony over Iraq's economy and a second turned his focus to US control of Iraq's oil money, while the al-Nasr Coalition affirmed state sovereignty and rejected Iranian hegemony — two rejections of foreign control of the economy running in opposite directions in the same week.

THINGS TO WATCH
Tehran publicly denies or acknowledges the Erbil drone strikesmedium likelihoodhigh impactThe Kurdistan Region's counterterrorism service named Iranian drones as hitting the KRG premier's office and the counterterrorism chief's residence, and none of the three reports carries any Iranian statement.
Nechirvan Barzani or the KRG speaks to the reported US-IRGC channelmedium likelihoodhigh impactOne report has Nechirvan Barzani mediating between Washington and the Revolutionary Guards while another attributed the same channel to Masoud Barzani, a contradiction Erbil has not addressed.
A named supplier or delivery date follows Sudani's air-defense demandlow likelihoodhigh impactThe prime minister urged expedited delivery of advanced air defense systems the evening before the Erbil strikes without any supplier or timetable being named in the reporting.
An EIA weekly shows US crude imports from Iraq above zeromedium likelihoodmedium impactThe Energy Information Administration has now logged a seventh consecutive week at zero, so the next weekly release will show either an eighth or a break.
The Finance Ministry names a specific non-oil revenue measuremedium likelihoodmedium impactThe finance minister committed to boosting non-oil revenues after conceding Hormuz's direct effects but identified no tax, tariff or fee.
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