An elderly man holds his ballot while voting in the 2023 Iraqi provincial council elections, the first such vote in a decade, at a polling station in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)
Rescue workers search a house for survivors after an earthquake in Kangdiao village, Dahejia, Jishishan County, in northwest China’s Gansu province, Dec. 19, 2023. (Photo: STR/AFP)
Iraqi High Election Commission staff meet in the election hall for the first provincial council elections in a decade, at a polling station in Sadr City in the capital Baghdad, Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)
Iraqi Minister of Interior Abdul Amir al-Shammari (left) is pictured while he speaks to IHEC officers in Baghdad, Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo: Submitted to Kurdistan24)
An Iraqi security officer electronically registers as he arrives to vote in the early round for members of the military and security forces in the 2023 Iraqi municipal elections, Dec. 16, 2023. (Photo: Qassem Al-Kaabi/AFP)
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (center), accompanied by Peshmerga officers and members of various ethnic and religious components, raised Kurdistan Region flag to mark national flag day in Erbil, Dec. 17, 2023. (Pho
KDP President and former Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani is pictured during a press conference in Erbil, Sept. 24, 2017. (Photo: Safin Hamid/AFP)
