Azhar Al-Rubaie

Thou­sands of tick­et­less fans had gath­ered out­side Bas­ra In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um ahead of the Ara­bi­an Gulf Cup fi­nal.

The 25th edi­tion of the Ara­bi­an Gulf Cup foot­ball tour­na­ment will start in Iraq on Fri­day.

Sup­port­ers of Muq­ta­da al-Sadr spoke to Al Jazeera, and em­pha­sised their con­tin­ued sup­port for the re­li­gious leader.

Sup­port­ers of Shia re­li­gious leader Muq­ta­da al-Sadr gath­ered in Bagh­dad weeks af­ter he with­drew his bloc from par­lia­ment

Iraq’s Sadrists, the biggest group­ing in par­lia­ment, have been un­able to form a gov­ern­ment since Oc­to­ber’s elec­tions.

Bas­ra was known for farm­ing, but ris­ing tem­per­a­tures, in­creased wa­ter salin­i­ty, and de­ser­ti­fi­ca­tion, have changed that.

Fears of vi­o­lent protests across south­ern cities rise as cuts de­prive Iraqis of pow­er to run hos­pi­tals and homes.

Pope Fran­cis ex­pect­ed to vis­it the an­cient south­ern Iraqi city of Ur on Sat­ur­day.

Jour­nal­ists say they have been in­creas­ing­ly un­der at­tack since wave of anti-gov­ern­ment protests be­gan in Oc­to­ber.

Shia and Sun­ni au­thor­i­ties both claim rights over the same com­mu­ni­ty prop­er­ties such as mosques and re­li­gious sites.