An Iraqi camel herder poses in the desert of Samawa in Iraq's southern province of al-Muthanna on January 27, 2024. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

Shi'ite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of al-Alam March 8, 2015. Thaier Al-Sudani: “It was me and a few other Iraqi journalists working for local outlets. We went to the frontlines in coordination with the Iraqi government forces and supporting militias. The press officer would come in the morning and take us to the frontline in a convoy. Whenever an area was won from Islamic State, the fighters would chant and pray and show victory signs. Most of the areas we were in didn't have residents, so after the battle they would resemble ghost towns; nothing but burnt cars and charred bodies of Islamic State fighters. Al-Alam was an exception as it had some residents who chanted for the government forces after their victory”. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Men are held by Iraqi national security agents, to be interrogated at a checkpoint, as oil fields burn in Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq, Saturday, November 5, 2016. Islamic State fighters launch counterattacks in the thin strip of territory Iraqi special forces have recaptured in eastern Mosul, highlighting the challenges ahead as the battle moves into more densely populated neighborhoods where coalition air power must be used more selectively. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

Iraqi forces launch a rocket in Mosul's eastern Al-Intisar neighbourhood on December 30, 2016, during an ongoing military operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Iraqi forces advanced on December 29 after declaring a new phase in their offensive on eastern Mosul, stepping up efforts to reclaim the Islamic State group's last major stronghold in the country. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Iraqi government forces are seen near the Falahat village west of Fallujah on June 27, 2016. Iraqi forces took the Islamic State group's last positions in the city of Fallujah on June 26, establishing full control over one of the jihadists' most emblematic bastions after a month-long operation. (Photo by Moadh Al-Dulaimi/AFP Photo)

A member from the Iraqi security forces beats an Islamic State insurgent, who was captured in Tikrit April 1, 2015. Iraqi troops and Shi'ite paramilitary fighters were battling Islamic State on Wednesday in northern Tikrit, which officials described as the Sunni Muslim militant group's last stronghold in the city. (Photo by Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)

Iraqis run for cover as they flee Mosul's Al-Tayaran neighbourhood on February 28, 2017, during an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the area from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Hundreds of civilians fled through the desert to escape fighting and privation in Mosul, joining thousands of others who left their homes as conditions worsen in the city's west. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

An Iraqi man comforts his 4-year-old son at a regroupment center for POWs of the 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf, Iraq, March 31, 2003. The man was seized in An Najaf with his son and the U.S. military did not want to separate them. (Photo by Jean-Marc Bouju/Associated Press)