Nabil Salih
@nabilsalih
A writer and photographer from Baghdad: @lrb.co.uk, @nybooks.com, @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, @bostonreview.bsky.social and elsewhere. PhD candidate @gvagrad.bsky.social.
‘Baghdad, ghostlike’ In the Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World. intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
Iraq's PM al-Zaidi is yet to return from Washington to Baghdad, where he spoke of disarming the state's militias, and the 'Islamic Resistance in Iraq' puts a $10 million reward on Trump's head.
I am asked if the government’s “policies of enhancing state sovereignty” is earning it more trust on the streets. But twenty three years after these unchosen rulers drove into Baghdad on their American overlords’ tanks in 2003, the power is still off, and the tap water reeks of sewage. Good morning.
‘Baghdad, ghostlike.' My latest essay in the Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World, alongside Nada Shabout, Zainab Bahrani, and others. intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...
I spoke with Ra'id Fahmi, the Secretary-General of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), about sectarianism and corruption in Iraqi politics for @jacobinmag.bsky.social
A loud explosion near my house in Baghdad. This could have landed in my bedroom. I have so much to say, but I’ll restrain myself for now.
In Baghdad, Ali Khamenei’s image looms over the entrance to Al-Alwiyah Club, where British spy Gertrude Bell had lounged after the fall of the Ottomans, on the very square where Saddam Hussein’s statue would be toppled in 2003 to create the image, and myth, of victory.
Fissures within the 'Iraqi Resistance'. Sheikh Akram al-Ka'abi of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba' speaks of 'a rat' leaking information about the 'mujahideen' to Jordanian and Cypriot intelligence.
Last night’s protest outside the Green Zone. Chants against the “great Satan” that is the United States. Words soon.
A muffled statement from former premier Nouri al-Maliki, who, despite his rhetoric on sovereignty amid US pressure against his return, has been making overtures to the Beltway. Government formation remains stalled in Baghdad, where clashes at the entrances to the Green Zone heated overnight.
Akram al-Ka’abi of al-Nujaba’ promises to rub Trump’s face in the dirt:
Jurf al-Sakhar, the depopulated enclave in Babil province, was hit anew this evening, the Security Media Cell said in a statement. No word on casualties, but Kata’ib already shared images on Telegram of the funeral procession after the day’s earlier bombing:
My Baghdad dispatch in the December issue of the German @mondediplo.com:
My essay on my family's photographs in Iraq appeared in a new anthology from The Markaz Review, available in major bookstores and through the links below: Print: themarkaz.org/all-issues/t... Digital: themarkaz.org/all-issues/t...
Shiʿr Magazine from the summer of the 1967 Naksa, featuring editor Yusuf al-Khal, the critic-artist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, and a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke. Kamal Boullata is the cover artist. Mahmoud Darwish opens the issue with a poem smuggled from prison: “Has your horse fallen, Saladin?”