In the summer of 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched a military offensive in Northern Iraq and declared a worldwide Islamic caliphate, eliciting another military response from the United States and its allies.

Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty. “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.” "My life is a disaster today.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reports from Khazir camp near Erbil.

Iraqi troops are fighting to retake control of the remainder of Mosul's old city.

An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict. However, the power vacuum following Saddam's demise and the mismanagement of the occupation led to widespread sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, as well as a lengthy insurgency against U. The rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the U. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014.

It became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition; the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. S., joined by the United Kingdom and several coalition allies, launching a "shock and awe" bombing campaign. The al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the country's Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions.

was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. involvement in Iraq accelerated under President Barack Obama. The Bush administration based its rationale for the war principally on the assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and that the Iraqi government posed an immediate threat to the United States and its coalition allies.

Mesopotamia, also referred to as the Fertile Crescent, was an important center of early civilization and saw the rise and fall of many cultures and settlements.

Warning: There are distressing images in this report.

The family of an Iraqi girl suffering from severe burn wounds is appealing for urgent help to overcome bureaucratic obstacles and take her to the United States for treatment.

“Someone should help free us from these criminals.” AN INCREASING PROBLEM Saeed Muhammad, a senior official in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, said it was addressing the problem but was under-resourced.

“We have been informed about dozens of cases of male prostitution, and all of them [the boys involved] were threatened,” he said.