A mountaineer carries a disabled girl to help her cross the river as they hike up the mountain in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, March 13, 2022. (Photo by Mohammed Jalal/Reuters)





Men use a horse to transport torches during celebrations of the Persian new year Nowruz (Noruz) in the town of Akra, about 100 kilometres north of Arbil, in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region on March 20, 2022. The Persian New Year is an ancient Zoroastrian tradition celebrated by Iranians and Kurds which coincides with the vernal (spring) equinox and is calculated by the solar calendar. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)





A man waves a Kurdish flag during celebrations of the Persian new year Nowruz (Noruz) in the town of Akra, about 100 kilometres north of Arbil in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2022. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)





Iraqi Kurds holding lit torches walk up a mountain during celebrations of Noruz (Nowruz), the Persian new year, in the town of Akra, about 100 kilometres north of Arbil in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2022. The Persian New Year is an ancient Zoroastrian tradition celebrated by Iranians and Kurds which coincides with the vernal (spring) equinox and is calculated by the solar calendar. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)





Shiite Muslim worshipers gather at the holy shrine of Imam Abbas during the annual festival of Shabaniyah, which marks the anniversary of the birth of the ninth-century Shiite leader known as the Hidden Imam, in Karbala, Iraq, Friday, March 18, 2022. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)





An aerial picture shows cattle in the shallow waters of the Shatt Al-Arab river in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra on March 21, 2022. Basra sits on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which flow into the Gulf. Today, the salt water from the sea has taken over and now reaches 300 kilometres upriver. Waste water produced by Iraq, a country of 38 million people, is also poisoning the Tigris and Euphrates. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)





Iraqi men collect reed (Phragmites australis) harvested from the marshlands in Iraq's southern Dhi Qar province on March 24, 2022. The reed is used to feed productive animals such as buffalos and cows as well as a raw material in the construction of traditional houses. (Photo by Asaad Niazi/AFP Photo)





Students of the Ballet Academy prepare to perform during the school annual ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 1, 2022. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)





People receive free food being distributed ahead of Iftar, the evening meal breaking the Ramadan fast, at the Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 2, 2022. Muslims throughout the world are marking the Ramadan – a month of fasting during which observants abstain from food, drink and other pleasures from sunrise to sunset. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)





Mohammed Dakhil Chyad, 55, an Iraqi cinephile who offers free screenings in his home cinema and at a cultural center, feeds his cats in Baghdad, Iraq, March 29, 2022. (Photo by Tiba Sadeq/Reuters)





People pray during the holy month of Ramadan at Al-Sahlah Mosque in Kufa near the holy city of Najaf, Iraq on April 5, 2022. (Photo by Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)





Vehicles drive along a main road during a sandstorm in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, on April 7, 2022. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)





Iraqis visit the shrine of Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Kilani during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in central Baghdad on April 8, 2022. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)





Iraqi Christians gather at Saint Joseph's church in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on April 9, 2022, to celebrate Palm Sunday marking the triumphant return of Christ to Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion when a cheering crowd greeted him waving palm leaves, according to Christian tradition. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)





Iraqi Muslims eat Iftar, the meal to end their fast at sunset, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, Iraq, April 9, 2022. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)





A foreign tourist visits the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq, April 15, 2022. (Photo by Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)





An aircraft flies above Iraq's southern city of Basra past the waning gibbous moon late on April 18, 2022. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)





Vehicles drive along a road during a severe dust storm in Iraq's capital Baghdad on April 20, 2022. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)





A youth sits by the “Saving Iraqi Culture” monument at the Mansour district of Iraq's capital Baghdad during a severe dust storm on April 20, 2022. The monument, commissioned in 2010 and designed by Iraqi sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, depicts a broken cylinder seal with cuneiform script reading “writing began here” with hands and arms attempting to support it from falling. (Photo by AHmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)





Worshippers place the Koran, Islam's holy book, on their heads during prayer rituals of Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) which marks the night in which the holy Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, at the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf, late on April 20, 2022. (Photo by Ali Najafi/AFP Photo)