Iraq

By Nawzat Shamdeen | Mosul | (Niqash.org) Mobile phones are no use in Mosul any more. The extremist group controlling Mosul in northern Iraq has decided to shut down most mobile telecommunications inside the city. Rumours are flying as to why. Have they done it because they can no longer profit from the phone companies […]

Featured

Over 100 ISIL/Daesh Fighters Killed in US Airstrikes in Iraq; Attack on Syria Base Repelled

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — The US war on Daesh (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria takes up less and less space in the MSM. The group and its issues haven’t gone away, however. A source in Iraqi security told AFP Arabic that US and allied air strikes had killed about 100 fighters near Mosul on […]

Iraq

Iraq Fail: Shiite Gov’t asks Sunni tribe to fight ISIL, but Sentences Politician from Tribe to Death

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) While members of the Sunni Muslim al-Bu Ulwan tribe were fighting extremists in the Anbar province, alongside the mostly Shiite Muslim military, judges in Baghdad sentenced a politician from the tribe to death. The tribe says it feels like Baghdad has stabbed it in the back. Other Anbar […]

Iraq

Threatened by ISIL/Daesh, Kurds Maneuver between Baghdad and Ankara

contributors

Iraqi Kurds Seek Greater Balance between Ankara and Baghdad By Mohammed A. Salih ERBIL, Dec 4 2014 (IPS) – After a period of frostiness, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey seem intent on mending ties, as each of the parties show signs of needing the other. But the Kurds appear more cautious this time […]

Featured

Iran-Iraq War 2.0? Iran Flies bombing Raids on Extremists in Iraq

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — The US Pentagon is confirming that Iranian F-4 fighter jets have flown bombing missions against Daesh or the so-called ‘Islamic State Group’ in Iraq. They helped Iraqi Shiites take the town of Saadiya back from Daesh late last week. That town is in the ethnically and religiously mixed province of […]

Colonialism

ISIL, Coins, and the Caliphate: Banking on Idealism

contributors

By Tareq A. Ramadan It has been recently reported by Daesh (what most Arabs call the self-styled “Islamic State Group” or IS) that it will be producing and circulating its own coinage in an attempt to purportedly offset the popularity and usage of secular, Western currencies which they dub the “oppressor’s money” [1]. For Daesh, […]

Iraq

Iraqi Kurdistan: Can a Bastion of Tolerance and Democracy survive in the Middle East?

contributors

By Richard Foltz | — Having committed ourselves to military involvement in Iraq, we in North America should be asking ourselves exactly what goals we hope to achieve. Personally, after recently spending three weeks in the region, I am not convinced that “preserving the territorial integrity” of the present Iraqi state should be one of […]

Bush

Bush Admin. Spent Billions on an Iraqi Army with 50,000 “ghost” Soldiers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced to his parliament on Sunday that inspectors had uncovered 50,000 non-existent soldiers in four divisions of the Iraqi Army. Their pay was presumably being diverted to the officers in the division. This ziggurat of corruption was one reason the army collapsed on June 9, […]

Humor

The Rolex Caliph’s Camel Selfie: How Iraqi Youth are Ridiculing Daesh/ISIL Online

contributors

By Cathrin Schaer | Berlin | (Niqash.org) — The extremist Islamic State group has been very effective on social media, terrifying their enemies and boosting their own prestige. Now a new group of keyboard warriors are fighting back. They come via the Twitter website and they’re well armed with jokes about goats and donkeys and […]