We’re digging deeper into decades of conflict in Iraq

There is a lot you can now do in Iraq which you couldn’t just a few years ago. To the outside world, the war-torn country has for years been dominated by coverage of Isis – or, later, the battle to oust jihadi groups. As a reporter on the ground, the country felt almost cut up into sections, as whole areas were no-go zones. But that’s changed.

For a multipart series which launched today, we drove the length and breadth of the country from the restive Sinjar border area with Syria in the northeast, to the summering polluted oil cities of the far south. Along the way, we stopped at the former Isis stronghold of Mosul, which recently hosted a visit by the Pope.

These kind of car journeys – and events – would have been unthinkable just four years ago. A sign of change – but that’s not to say life is easier in Iraq.

The aim of the new series is to try to dig a bit deeper into the fallout from the last few decades of conflict, by trying to get beyond the obvious.

And so, today, as the first part in the series, we are publishing an article on the country’s little-covered crystal meth epidemic, which is ravaging the youth that make up the vast majority of the population.

Traumatised by years of living in conflicts and facing a future of little hope as unemployment surges, the young are increasingly turning to drugs to escape their woes.

It’s become a major problem, particularly in the impoverished south of the country, and is causing concern amid the pandemic as it leaves many additionally vulnerable to Covid-19.

The series will go on to explore how air pollution has killed more people than any of the conflicts over the last few years; the growing power (post-Isis) the powerful Iran-backed militias are now wielding, and the new (and little known) international theatres of war.

It’s difficult to do justice to such a complex situation, but we hope the series will go some way to trying.

Yours,

Bel Trew

Middle East correspondent