Suadad al-Salhy is a senior reporter at The New Region, covering Iraq's politics and security. A former Reuters correspondent, she has also written for The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, The Telegraph and Middle East Eye, and in 2022 was named Journalist of the Year at the Drum Online Media Awards for her work with Middle East Eye.
With more than seventeen years' experience, al-Salhy has covered breaking news, investigations, features and documentaries for some of the world's leading news organisations, reporting on the ground through some of the Middle East's defining stories of the past two decades. Her work has also uncovered serious human rights violations, including as part of a Reuters team shortlisted as a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for exposing unlawful executions and arbitrary detentions by Iraqi forces during the liberation of cities from Islamic State.
She has reported from the frontlines of Iraq's most dangerous conflicts, including the two battles of Fallujah in 2004 and street fighting between US troops and the Mehdi Army in Najaf the same year. As head of The New York Times' Baghdad bureau, she played a central role in covering the rise of Islamic State, documenting atrocities committed against soldiers, religious minorities and civilians, as well as investigating abuses against IS prisoners by government-backed Shia militias.
Beyond conflict reporting, she has provided sustained coverage of Iraqi politics for publications including The New York Times, The Economist, The Times, The Telegraph, Newsweek, Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.
Al-Salhy is also co-founder and executive director of Mesopotamia Agency, a production company she helped establish in 2014 to make documentary films. The company has partnered with major international media organisations on a range of acclaimed productions, including Home After War, a virtual reality film following an Iraqi father's return to Fallujah amid the threat of improvised explosive devices, and Athletes Under Fire, an Olympic Channel documentary series following six athletes training for the Olympics in active war zones.
