Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) – (Baghdad) – The offensive to re-take Tikrit from extremists seems to have stalled as troops surround the city but cannot go further. The same thing is happening elsewhere. And there are three main reasons why. While stopped on the edges of the city of Tikrit, Captain Ahmad Mahmoud says […]

Featured

Mideast Apocalypse 2030: Why Obama wants the Palestine Issue Solved. Now.

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – It began in Hebron, which Palestinians call “al-Khalil,” the city of Abraham. Hundreds of thousands of Israel squatters had been enticed into this Palestinian city of 400,000 by the Likud government with cheap rent in cookie-cutter apartment buildings constructed on stolen Palestinian land. The raids on Palestinian olive […]

Arab World

The Rise of ISIL & the Political Bankruptcy of Arab Politics in the Levant

contributors

By Ali R. Abootalebi | (Informed Comment) The rise of the so called ‘the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (al-Sham)’ or the ISIL—the Daesh in Arabic—is fundamentally the result of both the poverty of Arab Politics and the failure of the Islamic clerical leadership in formulating and institutionalizing the mechanics necessary for modern governance. […]

Displaced and Refugees

Iraq: Shiite Militia atrocities During Fight Against ISIL & Iraq’s Response

contributors

Human Rights Watch | (New York) – Militias, volunteer fighters, and Iraqi security forces engaged in deliberate destruction of civilian property after these forces, following US and Iraqi air strikes, forced the retreat of Islamic State fighters (also known as ISIS) from the town of Amerli and surrounding areas in early September 2014, Human Rights […]

Egypt

Could Sunni-Shiite Rift make Tikrit a Pyrrhic Victory? Al-Azhar & Shiite Militias

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The foremost Sunni Muslim seat of learning, al-Azhar University in Cairo, has stirred controversy by issuing a considered legal opinion (fatwa) condemning the Shiite militias or “Popular Mobilization Forces” that are now fighting alongside the Iraq army to take Tikrit back from Daesh (ISIL or ISIS). To be fair, […]

Displaced and Refugees

As Islamic State retreats, aid workers uncover human toll

contributors

By Louise Redvers | (IRIN) – BAGHDAD/LONDON, (IRIN) – A week after launching a major offensive to recapture the city of Tikrit, pro-government forces in Iraq claim they are close to reclaiming large parts of territory held by militants from the group calling itself Islamic State (IS). But for aid agencies the work in Tikrit […]

Featured

Ghosts of Saladin, Saddam & Khomeini: Tikrit Campaign’s Historical Meaning

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Iraqi forces (one-third army, two-thirds Shiite militias) that are surrounding Tikrit 80 miles north of Baghdad are not just Iraqi forces. They are mostly Shiite, though some Sunni irregulars have joined them. More important, the Tikrit campaign is being directed as to its strategy by Qasim Sulaimani, […]

Iraq

From Iraq’s Next big Front: Kurdish Fighters Closing in on Mosul

contributors

VICE News | – “With the timeline unclear for a forthcoming US-led coalition assault on the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Mosul, Kurdish peshmerga fighters continue to man the trenches at the strategic junction of Keske, just outside the northern Iraqi city. VICE News traveled to Keske to meet with peshmerga fighters and to learn […]

History

Iraq: What is the meaning of the Assyrian capital ISIL just demolished?

contributors

Channel 4 News | – “[So-called] Islamic State [group] militants looted and bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, government officials say.” Channel 4 News: “ISIS militants demolish ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud” For more on the Assyrian palace of Nimrud see Klaudia Englud at the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Nimrud, Northwest […]