Iraq

Messi comes off the bench to score in Argentina’s final World Cup warm-up

Argentina ease past Iceland in their final friendly before the World Cup, winning 3-0 in Auburn, Alabama.

World Cup form guide: Ranking the eight MENA teams in the tournament

Breaking down the eight Middle East and North African teams’ chances at the World Cup in North America.

Smoke rises over Tehran after an explosion, Iran, February 28, 2026. [AP Photo]

This screengrab from a handout video shows a missile being launched from a US Navy ship in support of Operation Epic Fury, February 28, 2026. [Handout/US Central Command via AP]

Firefighters work to extinguish flames in a building after a direct hit by an Iranian missile in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 28, 2026. [Tomer Neuberg/AP Photo]

A black plume of smoke rises from a warehouse in the industrial area of Sharjah City in the United Arab Emirates following reported Iranian strikes in Dubai, UAE, March 1, 2026. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]

Debris lies in a room of Gandhi Hospital, damaged when an Israeli-US strike hit a state TV communications tower and nearby buildings across the street during the US-Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, March 2, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Graves are prepared for victims during a mass funeral ceremony for 165 schoolgirls and staff killed on February 28, 2026, in what Iran has described as a US-Israeli attack on a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, March 2, 2026. [Handout/Iranian Foreign Media Department via AP]

A Muslim leader leads volunteers in prayer next to a police facility hit during the US-Israeli military campaign in Tehran, March 4, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Israeli tanks manoeuvre near the Israel-Lebanon border in northern Israel, March 4, 2026. [Ariel Schalit/AP Photo]

A shepherd boy walks away from an unexploded projectile that landed in an open field on the outskirts of Qamishli, eastern Syria, March 4, 2026. [Baderkhan Ahmad/AP Photo]

A giant poster of late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh is seen as workers inspect a building destroyed in an Israeli air raid in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, March 5, 2026. [Mohammed Zaatari/AP Photo]

Two women from the Iranian Red Crescent Society stand as a thick plume of smoke from a US-Israeli attack on an oil storage facility rises into the sky in Tehran, March 8, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

People inspect the site where Israeli air raids hit several houses in Sir al-Gharbiyeh village, southern Lebanon, March 8, 2026. [Mohammed Zaatari/AP Photo]

Flames rise after an Israeli air raid in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburb, March 9, 2026. [Hassan Ammar/AP Photo]

Mourners attend a funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the US-Israeli military campaign, in Tehran, March 11, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

A woman sits amid rubble across from a residential building damaged during the US-Israeli air campaign in Tehran, March 12, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble after an attack in southern Tehran, March 13, 2026. [Sajjad Safari/AP Photo]

Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli air attack on the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, March 22, 2026. [Mohammad Zaatari/AP Photo]

A journalist carries burned safety gear, following an Israeli airstrike on a car that killed Hezbollah's al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib, Beirut's based Al-Mayadeen TV reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, video journalist Mohammed Ftouni, in the town of Jezzine, south Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A journalist carries burned safety gear after an Israeli air raid on a car that killed Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib, Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, video journalist Mohammed Ftouni, in Jezzine, southern Lebanon, March 28, 2026. [Mohammed Zaatari/AP Photo]

Rescue workers and soldiers carry a victim’s body from the rubble of a residential building, a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, April 6, 2026. [Ariel Schalit/AP Photo]

Rescuers work at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, April 8, 2026. [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]

Mourners attend a reception ceremony for the bodies of Lebanese state security forces members killed in Israeli strikes on Nabatieh, in Sidon, southern Lebanon, April 11, 2026. [Aziz Taher/Reuters]

A demonstrator kisses a symbolic boot in tribute to a Lebanese fighter during a protest against direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, April 11, 2026. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

A man flashes a victory sign while carrying an Iranian flag in front of an anti-US billboard, with Farsi slogans reading “The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed” and “The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground”, at Islamic Revolution Square in central Tehran, April 13, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Mohamed el-Junayd, 43, who says he survived the Israeli attack, sits beside piled-up damaged cars at the site of an April 8 attack on Corniche al-Mazraa in Beirut, April 13, 2026. [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]

Displaced woman Ghada Mohammed Fadel, who fled her home following an Israeli displacement order, holds her twin babies, Mohammed and Mehdi, inside a university-turned shelter in Sidon, southern Lebanon, April 13, 2026. [Aziz Taher/Reuters]

A container ship sails through the Strait of Hormuz off Qeshm Island, southern Iran, April 18, 2026. [Asghar Besharati/AP Photo]

The site of an Israeli strike in Tyre, Lebanon in April 2026

People sit at the site of an Israeli attack carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel took effect, in the Abbassye area of Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 18, 2026. [Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters]

Girls gesture as if launching missiles while singing next to portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during a state-organised rally marking the birthday of Imam Reza and expressing support for the leadership, in Tehran, April 29, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Buildings lie in ruins in the historic Saray neighbourhood following an Israeli attack earlier this week, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency, in Nabatieh, May 20, 2026. [Reuters]

Ali Salman, 12, injured in an Israeli air attack, lies on a bed at Jabal Amel hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, May 26, 2026. [Mohammed Zaatari/AP Photo]

Cars jam a highway as people flee Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on targets in the area, Lebanon, June 1, 2026. [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]

Mourners carry the coffins of dentist James George Karam and his children, Theodosia and Tony, killed in an Israeli attack, during their funeral in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, June 3, 2026. [Stringer/Reuters]

Kuwaiti officials inspect damage at a Kuwait international airport terminal after a drone and missile attack, in Kuwait City, June 3, 2026. [Handout/Kuwait News Agency via Reuters]

People walk under a banner bearing portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28, in Tehran, June 6, 2026. [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]

Mourners attend the funeral of four people, including a woman and a medic, killed in an Israeli attack the previous day in Zebdine, Haret Sidon, southern Lebanon, June 7, 2026. [Aziz Taher/Reuters]

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