Sunnis

AJ+ | (Video Report) | – – AJ+: “What’s The Difference Between Shia And Sunni Islam?”

If Iraq can take Ramadi from ISIL/ Daesh, it will Need to reach out to Sunnis

By Balsam Mustafa and Scott Lucas | (The Conversation) | – – After days of mounting expectation, the Iraqi government finally announced a serious offensive to retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of western Iraq’s Anbar Province, from [the so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS). This is far from the first announcement of the imminent […]

Featured

If Defeating ISIL/ Daesh is so imp’t, why isn’t Ramadi Campaign all we’re talking about?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Given the large number of vehement pronouncements by US presidential candidates about the dire threat from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), and attacks on President Obama for not doing more, you would think that the American public would be hanging on every word about any progress against the […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Poll: Muslims actually HATE ISIL/ Daesh

contributors

Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore & Francesca Fiorentini | (The Young Turks) | – – N. B. Charts courtesy Pew Research Center [N.B. 6% of Buddhists in Malaysia think well of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), which either means they see it as anti-imperial or they just don’t know what it is. This statistic should provide […]

Iraq

Iraq: Eastern front against ISIL slowed by Internal Divisions, Unenthusiastic USAF

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraqi fighters in Anbar are waiting to push the Islamic State group out of cities like Ramadi. But they wonder when it will happen, if ever. Many believe that politics are why this particular victory must take so long. The tribal fighters of the central Iraqi province […]

al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda in Syria Leader: Kill Alawite Minority, Russians; Christians fear West Backs Him

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leader of al-Qaeda in Syria, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has called for an escalation in attacks on the population centers of the Alawite Shiite minority. The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and other leading members of the ruling Baath Party belong to this folk sect of […]

Iraq

The tragedy of Iraq’s Sunnis

contributors

By Chloe Cornish IRIN | – – KIRKUK (IRIN) – Iraq is congested with armed men: Kurdish peshmerga in the north; forlorn Iraqi army troops strung across the country; ascendant Shia militia groups and volunteer Popular Mobilisation Forces in the centre; and, of course, fighters from so-called Islamic State in the west. Civilians travelling through […]

Islam

Syria, Reserve army of Terrorism: Taliban Uzbek in Suicide Bombing of Shiite Village

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk and Barno Anvar | ( RFE/ RL ) An Uzbek militant has carried out a suicide truck bombing in the predominantly Shi’ite town of Fua in Idlib Province, part of a major attack against Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian forces by Islamist factions led by Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front. One of a […]

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 […]