Middle East

AJ+ “The Islamic State Group (aka ISIS or ISIL) is knocking on the doors of Kobani, a Syrian town on the border of Turkey. Desperate Kurdish fighters have been battling them for weeks. But it’s not looking so good.” AJ+ “ISIS Prepares To Take Kobani Despite U.S. Airstrikes”

Displaced and Refugees

You’ll Never Believe what ISIL has done to Iraq’s al-Anbar Population

contributors

BAGHDAD/DUBAI, 6 October 2014 (IRIN) – Nine months of shelling, airstrikes and street battles have taken a heavy toll on Iraq’s “forgotten” province of Anbar, the first to be overrun by militants from the group now calling itself the Islamic State (IS). The cities of Ramadi and Fallujah have been reduced to bombed-out wrecks: hospitals, […]

BDS Occupied Territories

Incivility: On not Bringing up Occupied Palestinians in Polite Company

contributors

By Heike Schotten (Ma’an News Agency) In the US, and especially within the US Palestine solidarity movement, the biggest Israel-Palestine news since Gaza Genocide 3.0 (which, with Palestinians dying daily, whether from the effects of the siege or horrific wounds leftover from the attack, makes this genocide ongoing), is the unceremonious un-hiring of Professor Steven […]

Featured

Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is acting in Syria as an adjunct to the Syrian Baath Army and helped reduce Qusayr and Homs last spring. The Syrian rebels were […]

Iraq

Kurdish Forces Under-equipped, Need ground troop Allies: Peshmerga General

contributors

RFE/RL In an interview with Samira Ali Mandee of RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq, General Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the Peshmerga Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdish region, discusses the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants, cooperation with Iraqi and outside militaries, and the mood on the front. RFE/RL: Could you tell us about the security developments along […]

Featured

ISIL Still Taking Towns in Iraq’s Al-Anbar as Coalition Airstrikes are Delayed

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The pan-Arab London daily Al-Hayat [Life] reports today that ISIL is still expanding its sway in towns in Iraq’s western al-Anbar Province, having just taken Kubaisah in the district of Hit on Friday into Saturday, two days after the district capital of Hit fell to them. Local Iraqi police ran away from […]

Apartheid

Defying US, Sweden to Recognize Palestine (First in Western Europe)

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The prime minister of the Kingdom of Sweden on Friday said that the country would recognize the State of Palestine, becoming the first major Western European state to do so. Prime Minister Setfan Loefven said during his inaugural address that “the conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a […]

Economy

Expansion of Morocco’s Largest Solar Complex to Provide 1.1 Million Moroccans with Clean Energy

contributors

World Bank WASHINGTON, September 30, 2014 – The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$519 million project to support Morocco’s ongoing efforts to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels by developing its renewable energy resources. The project will back the government’s strategy of harnessing power from the sun through the use […]

Featured

The Alamo of the Kurds: Kobane Near Falling to ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Ismat Sheikh, commander of the Kurdish forces at the border town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) that is besieged by ISIL tanks and artillery, says that he expects massacres of its inhabitants if it falls to the Sunni Arab extremists. He warned that ISIL fighters are less than a mile from his front […]