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Archives: Iraq

Iraq after ISIL needs Security, Anti-Corruption & Jobs, not Identity Politics

By Andrea Teti, Pamela Abbott, and Munqith Dagher | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | - - Ignoring priorities that have popular support in Iraq risks undermining post-ISIS attempts to build a stable country,…

Iraq’s Next Elections will be the most Important in its History

Mustafa Habib. | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | - - In Iraq, larger political parties disagree on everything except maintaining the status quo: Parliament just passed a law that will badly affect the…

Who defeated ISIL? Obama’s Quiet Strategy, not Trump’s Bluster

Bryan G. Williams | (Informed Comment) | - - Book excerpt from the just-published Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria [CLICK]: At the time of the writing of…

Guess What Iraq’s Biggest Problem Really Is

By Pamela Abbott, Andrea Teti and Kevin M. DeJesus | (The Conversation) | - - With the defeat of the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the battlefield looking imminent, Iraq is confronting…

Al-Sadr in Jidda: Are Saudis looking for channel to Iran, or anti-Iran Client?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday paid a visit to Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port, Jidda, at the invitation of the Saudi…

Losing Cities, can ISIL strike Iraq, West from Mountain Bases?

By Dashty Ali | Sulaymaniyah | (Niqash.org) | - - Having been driven out of Mosul, the extremist Islamic State group is doing what Al Qaeda did before them: setting up new…

After ISIL Defeat in Mosul, Camps or Rehabilitation for Families?

Nawzat Shamdeen | (Mosul) | (Niqash.org) | - - Locals in Mosul are divided on whether to rehabilitate, reconcile or punish the families of Islamic State members. Meanwhile rumour has it that…

Empire of Destruction: Mosul reveals Myth of Precision Bombing

By Tom Engelhardt | (Via Tomdispatch.com ) | - - You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully…

Does Sunni Fragmentation after ISIL threaten Iraq’s Future?

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | - - As the date for a Baghdad summit on unity nears, the cracks are showing. It seems the country's Sunni politicians can’t even…

Rolex “Caliph” of ISIL Dead: Syrian Observatory

TeleSur | - - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death has been widely speculated for months. Reports from the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, SOHR, claim that ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi…

Can the Liberation of Mosul begin to free the Mideast from Fundamentalism?

By Balsam Mustafa | (The Conversation) | - - After an offensive lasting nearly nine months, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, walked through the streets of Mosul on July 9 after…

Hobby Lobby caught smuggling Iraqi Antiquities (TYT)

Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich | (The Young Turks News Video) || - - "Hobby Lobby just got caught smuggling. Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich, the hosts of The Young Turks, tell…

Iraqi Gov’t declares “mighty Triumph” over ISIL in Mosul, as Sunni Press decries Casualties

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Al-Mada reports that 24 hours after Mosul was completely liberated from the hold of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi visited it…

Why Mosul Matters

The Economist | (Video News Report) | - - "Mosul stands on the brink of recapture from Islamic State fighters, but the future of the city is uncertain. With several parties jostling…

Iraqis Travel to Mosul to Celebrate Holy Day in a Show of Solidarity

By Sali Mahdy | (GlobalVoices.org) | - - A group of around 300 Iraqis recently traveled from south and central Iraq to Mosul to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with their newly…

Iraq united to defeat ISIL, but can it avoid Break-up Afterwards?

By Dylan O’Driscoll | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | - - Multiple segments of the population, including at elite level, have come together in the fight against IS and now the time has…

Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl

By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | - - It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an…

If US Wars aren’t on TV, are all those 1000s really Dying?

Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - The headlines arrive in my inbox day after day: “U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria killed hundreds of civilians, U.N. panel says.” “Pentagon wants to declare…

Civilians Fleeing as Battle for Mosul enters last days

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Iraqi army has created pathways for civilians trapped in Mosul to escape and at least 100 have managed to flee to safety.…

Can the Sadr Movement in Iraq overcome Sectarianism with new Shiite-Sunni-Kurdish Party?

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | ( Niqash.org) | - - One of Iraq’s most powerful political groupings, the Sadrist movement, is trying to form a new alliance that may unite secular,…