Month

Archives: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Was ISIL’s destruction of Mosul’s Grand Mosque Grand Strategy?

Was ISIL’s destruction of Mosul’s Nuri Mosque Grand Strategy?

By Benjamin Isakhan and Jose Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona | (The Conversation) | - - On June 29 2014 – nearly three years ago to the day – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the…

In Apocalyptic Vandalism, ISIL blows up 800-year-old Nuri Mosque in Mosul

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - al-Hayat (Life) reports that on Wednesday evening around 9:30 pm local time, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) blew up the Nuri Mosque in Mosul. The…

Aerospace Campaign in Syria: Did Putin kill ISIL’s so-called ‘caliph’?

TeleSur | - - The statement came a day after Russia said it killed several senior leaders, 30 field commanders and up to 300 of their personal guards in an airstrike last…

Obama’s last Victory: Syrian Democratic Forces hold Parts of ISIL Capital

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with…

GOP Rep. urges US Terror alliance with ISIL against Iranian civilians

NIAC | (Video News Clip) | - - NIAC Action: "Shocking: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Suggests Tehran ISIS Attack Was "Positive"

Could ISIL attacks in Tehran plunge the Middle East into greater turmoil?

By Mohammadbagher Forough | (The Conversation) | - - Iran experienced its first major ISIL attack on June 7, as armed men and suicide bombers targeted two symbols of the Islamic Republic…

How Trump should have responded to London Attacks if he were Normal

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Donald J. Trump 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue/ Mar-a-Lago Florida (Golf Course) Dear Prime Minister May and Mayor Khan: I was devastated to learn that…

Baghdad and Manchester: Let’s Commemorate ISIL Victims in Both

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) lashed out at the civilian population in Iraq on Tuesday with three bombings and over 60 casualties. With its signature…

Mosul curses ISIL corpses: “Beguiled by promises of Virgins, you’re Garbage now”

Special Correspondent | (Mosul) | (Niqash.org) | - - NIQASH’s Mosul correspondent left the city shortly after the extremist Islamic State group took over. But most of his family remained. After 34…

Who are Egypt’s Coptic Christians, ISIL’s latest Victims?

By Paul Rowe | (The Conversation) | - - Coptic Christians in Egypt have been attacked while traveling on pilgrimages and bombed while praying on Palm Sunday, amid an accelerating series of…

Terror and Geopolitics: Manchester 2017 and 1996

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Manchester, UK, was hit with the deadliest bomb attack on Monday since a June Saturday morning in 1996, when a massive 3000 lb.…

What will new French President Macron do about Syria & ISIL?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Now that Emmanuel Macron is president of France, it is worthwhile asking what sort of foreign policy he would be likely to pursue.…

Power, Water, Music: Mosul comes back to Life

Special Correspondent | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | - - Locals in the parts of Mosul, from which extremists have been pushed out, are celebrating small signs of returning life: For one thing,…

Trump sends US Troops to Patrol Turkish-Syrian Border as Ankara Threatens US Allies

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Only one fighting force in Syria is practically speaking taking on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on the ground, and that is the Syrian Democratic…

UK: Labour’s Corbyn Says Could Halt Syria Airstrikes If Elected

TeleSur | - - Corbyn also said he would have to consider whether he would authorize a drone strike against the leader of Islamic State group to limit civilian deaths. The leader…

ISIL Terror-Trolls French Election, Supporting far Right; Will French Fall for It?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Thursday's shooting at the Champs Elysee, left one policeman dead, another gravely injured, a third lightly wounded along with a German tourist shot…

ISIL Now Controls only 7% of Iraq: What will its Defeat Mean for the Country?

Peter Bartu | (OpenDemocracy.net) | - - The west has treated ISIL as enemy number one while local actors see it as a sideshow in a political arena stretching from the Mediterranean…

Russia’s not Leaving: Syria is about old-Fashioned Sphere of Influence, not Oil

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russia is not going to yield its sphere of influence in Syria to Donald Trump or anyone else. Russia has all but won…

Sharpening Contradictions: ISIL Strikes Egyptian Christians on Palm Sunday

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for two suicide bombings at Christian churches in Lower Egypt on Palm Sunday, which left over 40…

Even once ISIL is defeated, the problem of Manhunts and Reprisals

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | Niqash.org | - - While Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State in west Mosul, intelligence services work in the east, to hunt down former members of the…