By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Agence France Presse got the scoop on Thursday, with their reporters in Fatisa just 19 miles from Daesh territory in northern al-Raqqa Province, Syria saying they saw some 20 US special operations troops embedded with leftist Kurdish YPG units and wearing YPG insignia. (The latter move […]
Iraq’s Fallujah: Grand Ayatollah Sistani Calls on Shiite Forces to protect Civilians
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Wednesday called on both regular Iraqi army forces and the popular mobilization units (Shiite militias) to avoid killing innocent noncombatants as they close in on Fallujah. An hour west of Baghdad and largely peopled by the Sunni Arab Dulaym tribe, Fallujah […]
US-Backed Kurds begin Campaign against ISIL in Northern Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The left-leaning Beirut daily al-Safir (The Ambassador) discusses the beginning of a new campaign by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) in the northern half of al-Raqqa Province. The south of the province and its capital, also named al-Raqqa, are a base […]
ISIL hits Syrian Regime in Shiite northwest, killing 150
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leftist Beirut daily al-Safir reports that security in Syria broke down dramatically on Monday, as seven bombs timed to go off simultaneously hit soft targets in the Syrian Mediterranean cities of Jebleh and Tartus, killing some 150 persons and wounding 225 , the vast majority […]
US Centcom Commander in Syria to Coordinate Kurds, Arabs against ISIL
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Robert Burns of AP reported on the visit inside Syria of the head of the US Middle East Command (Centcm), Army Gen. Joseph Votel, to assess the progress in US training of the Syrian Democratic Forces division. It is said to comprise 25,000 Kurdish fighters of […]
Baghdad on Lockdown not from fear of ISIL but of poor Protesters
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Baghdad was a ghost town on Saturday,, as security forces fanned out, blocking key roads into the Green Zone, the area downtown, closed off by blast walls, that houses parliament and foreign embassies. On Friday, over a hundred protesters were wounded and at least 2 died […]
Egyptians “shocked” at Lieberman Appointment, note Barak’s accusation of “fascism” in Tel Aviv
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – What do Israel’s Arab neighbors think about the political earthquake that struck PM Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Thursday and Friday? Netanyahu invited into his government the far right Yisrael Beitenu ultra-nationalist party and offered the minister of defense position to extremist Avigdor Lieberman. He appears to […]
Israel: Netanyahu replies to Officers’ charges of Fascism, makes far Right Lieberman their boss
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bolstered his majority and rid himself of a troublesome voice of conscience Thursday by appointing the extremist Avigdor Lieberman minister of defense. This move strengthened Netanyahu’s hand politically, removing a critic in the form of Moshe Yaalon, the previous minister of […]
Baghdad takes Rutba from ISIL: Jordan-Iraq Commercial Route to Reopen
by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi forces have taken Rutba in al-Anbar province, hundreds of kilometers west of the provincial capital, Ramadi, which is also now in government hands (though much of its population is displaced). Only a few dozen Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) forces were in Rutba in the end and […]
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