Iraq

By Juan Cole al-Zaman [The Times of Baghdad] reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has proposed to visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi an anti-ISIL axis including Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq that would be led by Iran, as an alternative to the US-led coalition proposed by President Barack Obama. In essence, this is the same […]

Iraq

Iraqi Sunnis to ISIL, US Coalition: A Pox on Both your Houses

contributors

Sunni Muslim Militias Decide They Won’t Fight With IS – or The US Alliance By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | via Niqash.org It is clear to both the current Iraqi government, to the US government and to international and local analysts and observers that it is going to take more than aerial bombardment to weed […]

Iraq

If Baghdad & the Kurds are allied against ISIL, why is Baghdad Starving Kurdistan of Money?

contributors

From a blogger in the region: Following international media reporting, it is easy to think about war only in terms of uniforms, boots and steel. But the war against the Islamic state has a different face in Iraq. Contrary to the popular game where scissor beats paper, paper will be the biggest threat to the […]

Iraq

Top 7 Ways US Intervention in Iraq/Syria could turn Catastrophic

contributors

By Peter Van Buren via Tomdispatch.com What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Seven Worst-Case Scenarios in the Battle with the Islamic State By Peter Van Buren You know the joke? You describe something obviously heading for disaster — a friend crossing Death Valley with next to no gas in his car — and then add, “What […]

Displaced and Refugees

Real Estate Agents to the Terrorists: ISIL Steals Mosul Refugee Property to Raise Money

contributors

By Nawzat Shamdeen via Niqash.org The Sunni Muslim extremist group that has taken over the northern city of Mosul has a new source of income: real estate. The Islamic State group has confiscated the properties of all those who fled or taken them off those they consider enemies. Locals say the plan is to auction […]

Colonialism

America’s Colonial Armies: Absentee Soldiers, Corrupt Officers and Collapse

contributors

By William J. Astore via Tomdispatch.com In June, tens of thousands of Iraqi Security Forces in Nineveh province north of Baghdad collapsed in the face of attacks from the militants of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS), abandoning four major cities to that extremist movement. The collapse drew much notice in our media, but not much in the way of […]

Featured

Is Baghdad next? ISIL takes Hit Base in Iraq, loots it for Weapons

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole According to Aljazeera sources, ISIL has completed the taking of Hit district in the al-Anbar Province of Iraq. At a time when, supposedly, a range of coalition partners is taking on ISIL and attempting to push it back from the territory it has taken in Syria and Iraq, in fact the organization […]

Human Rights

Iraqi Kurds to Turkey: Let Volunteers Through To Defend Failing Kobani

contributors

By Charles Recknagel via RFE/RL A top official of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region is calling on Turkey to let volunteer fighters through to the besieged Syrian city of Kobani, where Syrian Kurds are waging a desperate battle against Islamic State (IS) militants. Speaking on a visit to RFE/RL in Prague on October 13, Falah Mustafa, […]

Featured

The Wider Appeal of ISIL and Sunni Grievances

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole al-Quds al-`Arabi [Arab Jerusalem] reports on the appeal of ISIL to Salafi hard line Sunni Muslims. In a worrisome development, radicals throughout the region are rallying to the so-called “Islamic State,” which is actually just a bunch of armed thugs and brigands. Some of the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan have announced their […]