In 1986, Iraq qualified to play in a World Cup for the first time. It was the years of Saddam Hussein, the military leader who attached great importance to sports to promote his regime. Trained by a former Barça player, the Brazilian Evaristo de Macedo, Iraq lost all three matches played in Mexico by a narrow margin. One of the team's stars, Basil Gorgis, was sent off in the match against Belgium and upon returning to Baghdad, he was imprisoned for 10 days as punishment. Gorgis then only thought about fleeing, as he was from the Assyrian minority, an ancient nation that embraced Christianity and suffered repression in Saddam's times. In fact, Basil's sister, Mariam, had been kidnapped and executed in 1979, a fact that was not communicated to the Gorgis family until years later.

The summit of the international coalition against the Islamic State, held this week in Riyadh, has left clear signs of a political change. Syria returns to the international tableWith the explicit support of Saudi Arabia and the United States, Damascus, after years of isolation, without Assad (the Syrian president overthrown a year ago who had tolerated the growth of the Islamic State in areas controlled by rebels and Kurds), has become a direct interlocutor in the fight against the Islamic State. And in this shift, the Kurds, who until now have been central partners in the Western strategy on the ground, are relegated to a secondary role. The meeting, co-chaired by the Saudi kingdom and the US, brought together representatives from the more than 80 member countries of the coalition. The Syrian presence was symbolic: it is a recognition of its active participation in the new coordination framework. With the presence of Tom Barrack, the US special envoy, the meeting concluded that the new plan relies on Syrian state institutions. Washington and Riyadh believe that, after more than a decade of war and sanctions, any lasting strategy against the Islamic State requires working with Damascus. At the summit, the US discourse focused on the need to normalize operational channels with the Syrian government to avoid security vacuums. Barrack argued that the current phase demands strengthening state and regional cooperation rather than relying exclusively on local armed actors; in other words, Washington is adjusting its priorities. This adjustment directly affects the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which for years has been the coalition's main ally in the northeast of the country. The SDF has spearheaded the offensive against the Islamic State's territorial caliphate and has paid a heavy human cost. They have controlled prisons holding thousands of jihadist fighters and administered camps like Al-Hol, where tens of thousands of relatives of group members are held. Their role has been crucial.

The United States launched major airstrikes on Friday against suspected Islamic State headquarters in Syria to avenge the deaths of two American soldiers killed in a terrorist attack in the center of the country on Saturday. US forces targeted dozens of suspected sites belonging to the terrorist group in various locations across central Syria, including weapons depots and other buildings supporting operations, a US official told The New York Times on condition of anonymity. According to this source, the airstrikes and artillery fire were expected to last for several hours, well into the early hours of Saturday morning in Syria, in what the US official described as "a massive attack." Meanwhile, several social media users in Syria reported explosions across large areas of the country. The soldiers killed on Saturday were the first American casualties in the country since the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad last year. They were supporting counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in Palmyra, a city in central Syria, when they were attacked by a lone gunman, according to US and Syrian officials.