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IHCHR Report: 5 Million Orphaned Children in Iraq

Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) headquarters (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) headquarters (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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IHCHR Report: 5 Million Orphaned Children in Iraq

Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) headquarters (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) headquarters (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) released its recent report on the unfortunate situation in Iraq regarding the overall conditions of the population.

The Commission announced that five million children are orphaned in Iraq, about five percent of the total orphans in the world.

The report also indicated that there were one million child laborers, 45,000 children without identification documents, including children with ISIS-affiliated parents, and 4.5 million children whose families are below the poverty line.

IHCHR received 5,000 domestic violence complaints, according to the report.

IHCHR official Ali al-Bayati told Asharq Al-Awsat that the report based its number on various indicators from international and local organizations.

The number of orphans was based on UNICEF figures. The rest of the indicators were based on the statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and UN agencies or complaints received by the Commission.

The Commission also recorded a poverty rate of 25 percent of the total population, including the Kurdistan Region, and an unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent. In addition, 596 civilians were killed as a result of the violence.

Since 2014, 8,000 persons have been reported missing in Iraq. The Commission indicated that the Iraqi authorities did not conduct the necessary investigations to reveal their fate or help their families.

The Commission also reported the arrest of ten activists and journalists and received 900 complaints related to torture and ill-treatment in prisons without the authorities conducting an investigation.

The country needs 3.5 million housing units to overcome its housing crisis and 8,000 schools to adequately address students' needs, and the overall dropout rate from learning institutions was 73 percent in 2021.

In addition, there are about 4000 slums inhabited by about half a million families, most of which are concentrated in Baghdad.

In 2021, 175 people died due to the COVID-19 hospital fires in Baghdad and Nasiriyah, the report added.

There have also been 2,152 reported fatalities in traffic accidents during the same period, given the lack of developed roads across Iraq and the increasingly unplanned import of cars which significantly increased traffic accidents.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM: Those Killed in Israeli Strike Were Not 'Military Infrastructure'

People inspect a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Ansar, southern Lebanon, 15 August 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
People inspect a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Ansar, southern Lebanon, 15 August 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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Lebanon PM: Those Killed in Israeli Strike Were Not 'Military Infrastructure'

People inspect a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Ansar, southern Lebanon, 15 August 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
People inspect a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Ansar, southern Lebanon, 15 August 2026. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Saturday that seven people, including two women and three children, killed in an Israeli strike were not military targets, after Israel said it struck Hezbollah "infrastructure.”

"The seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the village of Ansar are not 'military infrastructure' and the women and children who were killed are not military targets," Salam said, adding that "Israel must halt this escalation,” which he said was "extremely dangerous and undermines efforts to consolidate stability in the south.”

State-run National News Agency said the airstrike targeted a home on the edge of Ansar.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the areas of Ali Taher and Ansar in response to an action against Israeli soldiers in the area.

The military added that it will not allow Hezbollah to harm Israeli civilians or soldiers “and will continue to operate to remove threats.”

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” on June 26, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon, in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the deal.

Arab World

Israeli Airstrike on Southern Lebanon Kills 7 People

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh shows smoke as it rises from the site of Israeli strikes that targeted the hilltops of the mountainous area of the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge on August 14, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh shows smoke as it rises from the site of Israeli strikes that targeted the hilltops of the mountainous area of the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge on August 14, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike on Southern Lebanon Kills 7 People

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh shows smoke as it rises from the site of Israeli strikes that targeted the hilltops of the mountainous area of the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge on August 14, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh shows smoke as it rises from the site of Israeli strikes that targeted the hilltops of the mountainous area of the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge on August 14, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed seven people early Saturday, the worst toll since deals in June saw a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israel "escalated its attacks on the south,” reporting that "a strike launched by enemy warplanes on a home" on the outskirts of the village of Ansar "killed seven people and wounded three others.”

It said the strike destroyed the home and that emergency rescuers were removing rubble and transporting the casualties to hospital.

The death toll from the airstrike makes it the deadliest since Lebanon and Israel announced a framework agreement on June 26, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon, in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Violence has significantly decreased since the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June on the broader Middle East war, and the US-sponsored framework deal between Lebanon and Israel.

But Lebanon still reports intermittent Israeli strikes occasionally causing casualties, and the broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.

The NNA said "the valley between Ansar and Zarariyeh was also subjected to a strike, the first at this geographical depth since the ceasefire two months ago.”

It also said "Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge,” a strategic hill overlooking the Nabatieh area, also reporting Israeli shelling there.

The news agency said Israeli forces detonated homes in the town of Bint Jbeil near the border.

Arab World

Iraqi Faction Rejects Using Force to Disarm Groups

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Coordination Framework member Hadi al-Amiri, and Reconstruction and Development Alliance leader Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani (Coordination Framework)
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Coordination Framework member Hadi al-Amiri, and Reconstruction and Development Alliance leader Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani (Coordination Framework)
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Iraqi Faction Rejects Using Force to Disarm Groups

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Coordination Framework member Hadi al-Amiri, and Reconstruction and Development Alliance leader Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani (Coordination Framework)
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Coordination Framework member Hadi al-Amiri, and Reconstruction and Development Alliance leader Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani (Coordination Framework)

Iraq's Badr Organization that is led by Hadi al-Amiri has rejected the government's attempts to using force to disarm armed factions.

The organization’s stance reflects growing disagreement within the political parties of the Coordination Framework over the future of weapons held by armed groups and their relationship with the state.

In a statement issued on Friday, head of the political bureau of the Badr Organization Mohammed Naji said the group opposes any threat to use force to seize the weapons of the factions, warning that raising the issue of disarmament in this manner could lead to tensions and internal strife.

Naji argued that the campaign to place all weapons exclusively under state control is viewed by the organization as coming under pressure from the United States.

"We will not allow the Prime Minister or anyone else to reach this level in dealing with our brothers in the resistance, because that would open the door to internal discord, the primary beneficiaries of which would be the US, the Zionist entity, and those lying in wait for us,” said Naji.

The Organization's position comes at a time when the Iraqi government is seeking to reinforce the principle that all weapons should be held solely by state institutions, amid increasing debate among political parties and armed factions on how this policy should be implemented and the timetable for doing so.

Writer and journalist Montadhar Naser believes that the issue of placing all weapons under state control has exposed contradictions within the forces that make up the Coordination Framework, with divisions extending even into some of the parties and factions themselves.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said the dispute is not limited to how weapons should be handled. It is also linked to defining the nature of Iraq’s relationship with both the US and Iran, and to determining the extent to which security and military decision-making can remain independent of armed groups that are connected to external actors.

The debate on the issue of weapons coincided with another unannounced visit to Baghdad by Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), during which he met with a number of leaders of the Coordination Framework.

The visit sparked speculation about the nature of Qaani's meetings and whether he had also met Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.

Iraqi sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Tehran wants to keep the issue of factional weapons effectively unresolved, while potentially transferring nominal control of those arms to the government.

According to the same sources, this proposal may be acceptable to some leaders within the Coordination Framework, but it is not favored by the relevant Iraqi state authorities.

The disagreement places the government before a sensitive political and security test. Any attempt to impose disarmament by force could trigger a confrontation with factions that possess significant political and security influence.

Conversely, postponing the issue or settling for merely symbolic measures could undermine the state's efforts to strengthen its monopoly over military and security decision-making.