Iraq

Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The United States and Russia are escalating arms sales to two of their major allies in the Middle East – Iraq and Syria – despite fears that some of these weapons may ultimately wind up, ironically, in the hands of armed rebel […]

Iraq

Iraq: Shiite Militia Abuses Mar Fight Against ISIS

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Washington) – Iraqi government-backed militias carried out widespread destruction of homes and shops around the city of Tikrit in March and April 2015 in violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Militiamen deliberately destroyed several hundred civilian buildings with no apparent […]

Iraq

Tikrit: ‘My Son joined Daesh/ISIL, Now I’m Living in Hell’

contributors

By Ghazwan Hassan al-Jibouri | Tikrit | (Niqash.org) | – – While [the so-called ‘Islamic State’ group] ruled Tikrit, many locals joined. When they were beaten there, fighters fled, leaving family members behind. Today those relatives are harassed and cannot even leave their homes. Iraqi woman, Suniyad Mahmoud, lives in a small, mud house with […]

Displaced and Refugees

Refugees from the Phony Caliphate: Iraqis hire People Smugglers to escape Mosul

contributors

Special Correspondent | (Niqash.org) | – – Hassan Hafouzi* and his family paid people smugglers so they could leave Mosul, the city controlled by the so-called Islamic State group. Two days after they arrived in Istanbul, they told NIQASH how they got out. Don’t try to leave: The notorious al-Fath al-Mubin checkpoint on Mosul’s western […]

Featured

US Intel Chief: Iraq and Syria may not Survive as States

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public remarks by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and by John Brennan, director of the CIA, suggest that Washington is making its peace with a break-up of Syria and Iraq. They hastened to say that break-up was not US policy, they simply saw […]

Displaced and Refugees

Why Young Iraqis Are Risking Their Lives to Get to Europe

contributors

By Marwan Jabbar | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraq’s security crisis means that if you are “different”, you may be a threat to militias ruling the streets now. Would-be asylum seekers tell NIQASH why they want to leave Baghdad, despite good jobs and nice homes. Europe is dealing with an influx of refugees […]

Chemical Weapons

ISIL’s campaign may be going chemical – why no international outcry?

contributors

Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Evidence is mounting that [so-called] Islamic State (IS) [group] is using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria – and yet this egregious crime, which once used to be a “red line” for the rest of the world, has yet to provoke a proportionate response. One the most […]

Iraq

Kurds unite, from Conservatives to Far Left, in Fight against ISIL

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza | (Inter Press Service) | – – KIRKUK, Iraq (IPS) – Reminders of the last occupants of camp K1 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk are only visible on the murals at the main gate leading into the compound: Iraqi soldiers saluting the flag, pointing their weapons or being cheered on […]

Iraq

A House Divided: Iranian, Iraqi Ayatollahs square off in Baghdad Streets

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Recent crises have seen historical tensions between Iraq and Iran’s highest religious leaders, who command the loyalty of millions and a deep philosophical difference, playing out on Iraq’s streets and among politicians. Iraqis living in Iran hold up posters of spiritual leader, Ali al-Sistani, during a […]