Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Euronews | — “Internally displaced Iraqi Christians who fled violence in Mosul celebrated Christmas in Baghdad on Wednesday.” Euronews: “Some displaced Iraqi Christians are not in the Christmas spirit”

Featured

Have the Kurds cut the ISIL/Daesh State in Two, Blocking Supply Lines?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad had an interesting article in the aftermath of the fall of Shinjar to the Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga. The piece argued that the Peshmerga (Kurdistan’s paramilitary, meaning ‘one who stands before death’) have now effectively cut of the supply lines between Raqqa in Syria and […]

Iraq

Reality TV Iraq Style: Confronting your Terrorist

contributors

AJ+ | — “It’s reality TV like you’ve never seen it before: Iraqi terrorists being escorted around their crime scenes, meeting their victims and confessing on camera. Co-funded by the Iraqi justice department and government antiterrorist forces, “In the Grip of The Law” has its audience, well … gripped.” AJ+: “Iraq TV Show Has ISIS […]

Iraq

3000 Yezidi Girls still Missing at Hands of Daesh/ISIL: “It costs more for a girl with blue eyes”

contributors

BBC News | — “Kurdish authorities say Pershmerga forces are making headway in the Northern Iraqi town of Sinjar and have taken control of a ‘large area’ from Islamic State militants. Iraqi Kurds made the claim during a visit to nearby Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis fled after the IS advance. However, the Yazidi […]

Iraq

The Yezidis: People of an Ancient Faith Battle Ethnic Cleansing

contributors

By Richard Foltz | (Special to Informed Comment) — Among the many victims of the barbarous Daesh (what Arabs call ISIS or ISIL), none has suffered more severely than the Kurdish Yezidis. After overrunning a number of Yezidi villages in Northern Syria and Iraq during the summer of 2014, Daesh extremists – who consider Yezidis […]

Iraq

Daesh/ ISIL close to Taking al-Anbar Province as Tribal Levies lack Ammunition, Funding, Unity

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | — Last week, fighters from tribes in Anbar were forced to give up their hold on the town of Wafaa to extremists from the Islamic State because they ran out of ammunition. And they ran out because apparently the Iraqi government won’t supply them. The steady defeat […]

al-Qaeda

Roots of Militancy among some Muslim Youth: What can be Done?

contributors

By Mustafa Gurbuz Gruesome ISIS beheadings, the Sydney siege, and now Taliban’s slaughter of children in Pakistan have haunted the media, along with the Senate’s report on CIA’s use of torture against suspected terrorists. The true nature of the radicalization problem, once again, is mostly obscured by petty domestic politics. The militant Islamism rests on […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Yezidi Minority, Daesh/ISIL, and Iraq’s Human Rights Catastrophe

contributors

by Patrick Ball Patrick Ball with Yezidi boys at an informal camp in Sharya, Iraq. Farhad (not his real name) got the call from ISIS on his personal cell phone just after lunch: we have your sister, and we will give her back if you pay us $6000, plus $1500 for the driver. Carrying little […]

Christianity

No more Turning the Cheek: Assyrian Christians form Militia in Syria to fight al-Qaeda

contributors

Middle East Eye | — “The Syriac Military Council (MFS) was established in January 2013 to protect the marginalised Assyrian Christian communities in Syria. They have fought to defend themselves from the Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham and frequently work in tandem with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). As sectarian violence swamps […]