A child runs towards Mohamed Maarouf, 28, as he walks with a sack of gifts while dressed in Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) costume in a slum near the centre of Iraq's southern city of Basra on December 24, 2021. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

Shiite Muslim devotees reach to receive a blessing from the tomb of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, at the Imam's shrine in Iraq's central holy city of Karbala on September 6, 2023, during the Arbaeen religious festival commemorating his seventh century killing. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/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)

Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles travelling to Mosul to fight against militants of Islamic State at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)

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)

This aerial view shows youths swimming to cool off in the waters of Iraq's Euphrates river during a heatwave, in the district of al-Hindiyah east of Karbala on June 7, 2024. (Photo by Karar Jabbar/AFP Photo)

A girl catches a fish in the marshes of the southern district of Chibayish in Dhi Qar province, about 120 kilometres northwest of the southern city of Basra, on September 23, 2020. Iraq's southern marshes are blossoming thanks to a wave of ecotourists picnicking and paddling down their replenished river bends. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

An Iraqi youth shows-off his balancing skills as he performs stunts on a motorbike, on the bank of the Shatt Al-Arab river at sunset, in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, on March 17, 2021. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)