Iraq

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – – [N.B. The offensive against ISIL (Daesh) in Tal Afar began on Sunday. – JC] Intensive air raids, secret political talks and military forces gathering on the outskirts of the city: Everything points to the battle of Tal Afar – almost the extremists’ last stand in Iraq . […]

Iraq

Iraq after ISIL needs Security, Anti-Corruption & Jobs, not Identity Politics

contributors

By Andrea Teti, Pamela Abbott, and Munqith Dagher | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | – – Ignoring priorities that have popular support in Iraq risks undermining post-ISIS attempts to build a stable country, with knock-on effects at a regional level. As the defeat of ISIS/Daesh looms large both in Syria and in Iraq, attention turns to […]

Democracy

Iraq’s Next Elections will be the most Important in its History

contributors

Mustafa Habib. | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – In Iraq, larger political parties disagree on everything except maintaining the status quo: Parliament just passed a law that will badly affect the smaller parties competing in the next elections. It has been said before. But this time it may well be true: Iraq’s next elections […]

Iraq

Who defeated ISIL? Obama’s Quiet Strategy, not Trump’s Bluster

contributors

Bryan G. Williams | (Informed Comment) | – – Book excerpt from the just-published Counter Jihad: America’s Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria [CLICK]: At the time of the writing of this book [in July 2016], Iraqi Army ordinance specialists are cleaning the town (Ramadi) of thousands of IEDs planted by ISIS. ISIS fighters […]

Democracy

Guess What Iraq’s Biggest Problem Really Is

contributors

By Pamela Abbott, Andrea Teti and Kevin M. DeJesus | (The Conversation) | – – With the defeat of the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the battlefield looking imminent, Iraq is confronting a monumental challenge: to repair a deeply fractured society fraught with ethno-religious, geographic and socio-economic divisions. It must end infighting within its political […]

Featured

Al-Sadr in Jidda: Are Saudis looking for channel to Iran, or anti-Iran Client?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday paid a visit to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port, Jidda, at the invitation of the Saudi royal family. He was hosted by Crown Prince Muhmmad bin Salman, who is acting head of state while his father is on vacation. […]

Counter-Terrorism

Losing Cities, can ISIL strike Iraq, West from Mountain Bases?

contributors

By Dashty Ali | Sulaymaniyah | (Niqash.org) | – – Having been driven out of Mosul, the extremist Islamic State group is doing what Al Qaeda did before them: setting up new bases in the rugged northern Hamrin mountain area. The extremist Islamic State group has lost its capital in Iraq, after they have been […]

Displaced and Refugees

After ISIL Defeat in Mosul, Camps or Rehabilitation for Families?

contributors

Nawzat Shamdeen | (Mosul) | (Niqash.org) | – – Locals in Mosul are divided on whether to rehabilitate, reconcile or punish the families of Islamic State members. Meanwhile rumour has it that secret detention camps are already being set up. “The families of the Islamic State are more dangerous than the members of the Islamic […]

Donald Trump

Empire of Destruction: Mosul reveals Myth of Precision Bombing

Juan Cole

By Tom Engelhardt | (Via Tomdispatch.com ) | – – You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent a triumph of modern […]