The Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad, formerly known as Cropper, has come under repeated rocket attacks since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, amid growing instability across Iraq.

Just hours after London allowed Washington on March 20, 2026, to use its Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran, U.S. sources claimed Tehran launched two missiles toward the facility, nearly 4,000 kilometers away, with one failing and the other intercepted.

In a rare acknowledgment of "Israel’s" possession of nuclear weapons, U.S. President Donald Trump revealed on March 16, that "Tel Aviv" possesses atomic arms.

At a moment of deep regional uncertainty, where lines of war intersect with the maps of energy and trade, Syria finds itself at a new crossroads shaped not only by internal pressures but by fast-moving geopolitical shifts reshaping the Middle East.

As the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran intensifies, Iraq has been pushed into a deepening economic crisis, especially after Tehran decided to close the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow waterway that serves as a lifeline for Iraqi oil exports.