Kurdish Policy Analysis

  Erbil, Kurdistan, March 24 – Iraq’s fragile peace, built over years of post-ISIS recovery, is rapidly unraveling as a direct U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran forces the country back into the crosshairs of a regional conflagration . The escalation reached a critical point late Tuesday when Iranian-allied Shiite militias launched a major assault on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad—the most significant attack on the diplomatic mission in years. Concurrently, missiles and drones targeted locations in the capital and  Erbil  , the seat of the Kurdish regional government, marking a "worst-case scenario" for Iraqi leaders who had spent the last year championing a unified national identity . For nearly two decades, Iraq has served as a primary theater for proxy warfare. However, the recent outbreak of full-scale hostilities between a U.S.-Israeli coalition and Tehran has uniquely threatened Iraq’s nascent stability. Between late January and March 2026, coalition forces e...