Water sources in Iraq, including the Tigris, Euphrates, the Shatt al-Arab estuary, and Mesopotamian marshes, together with soils used for agriculture irrigated by these waters, suffer from an increased load of heavy metals that has been widely described in recent scientific papers. This review covers recent literature, mostly from 2021 to 2026, regarding the presence of heavy metal contamination in three environmental compartments in Iraq, namely, surface water, sediments, and agricultural soils. Concentrations of cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, arsenic, and mercury are assessed according to pollution and ecological risk indices used in reviewed studies, such as contamination factor, geo-accumulation index, enrichment factor, pollution load index, Nemerow index, ecological risk index, metal index, and pollution index. Among all studied locations, namely, Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, Erbil, Duhok, Kirkuk, Fallujah, and the southern phosphate belt, cadmium and lead are identified as the metals with the highest concentration and anthropogenic origin, associated with urban, industrial, oil, and post-war sites. Human health risks reveal exceeding non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic thresholds, with children as the most vulnerable population group. This review is composed of five sections and offers some recommendations concerning sewage treatment, effluent regulation, site cleanup, and monitoring.