Kurds

Rita Daou | Your Middle East Kurds expel Islamic State group from Syria’s Kobane after months of fighting Banner Icon War in Syria Kurdish fighters have expelled Islamic State group militants from inside the Syrian border town of Kobane, a monitor said Monday, dealing a key symbolic blow to the jihadists’ ambitions. The Syrian Observatory […]

Displaced and Refugees

Angelina Jolie in Iraq: Int’l Community Failing Refugees from ISIL Brutality

contributors

Associated Press | — “Actress and director Angelina Jolie is calling on the international community to do more to aid refugees displaced by fighting in Iraq and Syria. The UN special envoy for refugees visited a camp in Iraq Sunday, saying that despite good intentions, “the international community has failed …” Angelina Jolie Visits Refugees […]

Iraq

Ragtag Kurdish Forces Face ISIL assaults at ‘The Kobani of Iraq’

contributors

By Shalaw Mohammed | Kirkuk | (Niqash.org) — NIQASH visits the northern Iraqi town of Kharabaroot, near Kirkuk, which has become the frontline for fighting between Iraqi Kurdish military and extremists from the Islamic State group. The Kurdish forces there come from Iran, Syria and Iraq and because of this, and because of the length […]

Iraq

US Mission Creep in Iraq, Part Deux

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | (Tomdispatch.com) — The current American war in Iraq is a struggle in search of a goal. It began in August as a humanitarian intervention, morphed into a campaign to protect Americans in-country, became a plan to defend the Kurds, followed by a full-on crusade to defeat the new Islamic State […]

Featured

Whatever Happened to besieged Kurdish City of Kobane, Syria?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Kurdish forces (including both the local YPG and Peshmerga units from Iraqi Kurdistan), and supported by Free Syrian Army troops and coalition air strikes, have largely recovered Kobane from rule by Daesh (called in the West ISIL or ISIS). Kurdish forces have recovered control of the downtown where the government […]

Iraq

Iraq: Yezidis return home to find Mass Graves, Daesh/ISIL Massacres

contributors

Euronews | — “Yazidi refugees from the Iraqi village of Hardan returned to their homes for the first time on Tuesday after being driven out by Islamic militants in August. They were hoping to find out what happened to their friends and family who were captured by ISIL. What they discovered confirmed their worst fears: […]

Featured

The Year Iraq Ceased to Exist: Will it ever Again?

Juan Cole

In 2014, Iraq was said to lose 42% of its territory to Daesh (the Arabic acronym for what our press calls ISIS or ISIL). This statistic refers to the loss of the mostly Sunni Arab provinces of al-Anbar and Ninewah, as well as parts of Salahuddin and Diyala. It is a little bit misleading, since […]

Iraq

Senior Kurdish Politician: Kirkuk is ours; if Arabs & Turkmen want it, let them fight ISIL for it as we do

contributors

Shalaw Mohammed | Sulaymaniyah | (Niqash.org) Senior Iraqi Kurdish politician Mullah Bakhtiar discusses his party’s relationship with Iran and with Kurdish parties in Syria – and in particular, in Kobani and Rojava, as well as whether anyone should be concerned about the unofficial Shiite Muslim militias behaving badly in northern Iraq. The head of the […]

Iraq

Iraq: Extremists of Daesh/ ISIL on the Move in Mosul in Response to Kurdish Advance

contributors

Khales Joumah | Mosul | (Niqash.org) Last week’s victory over the extremist Islamic State group in the Sinjar area has had a significant effect on the extremist-controlled city of Mosul. Foreign fighters have left, the city is flooded with refugees and supply routes are cut off. Locals are afraid of what comes next. Extremist fighters […]