Iraq

The Economist | (Video News Report) | – – “Mosul stands on the brink of recapture from Islamic State fighters, but the future of the city is uncertain. With several parties jostling for control of Mosul, fragile alliances could fracture, increasing the likelihood of bloody sectarian conflict.” The Economist: “Why Mosul Matters”

Iraq

Iraqis Travel to Mosul to Celebrate Holy Day in a Show of Solidarity

contributors

By Sali Mahdy | (GlobalVoices.org) | – – A group of around 300 Iraqis recently traveled from south and central Iraq to Mosul to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with their newly liberated compatriots. In the summer of 2014, the militant group Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) drove out Iraqi security […]

Iraq

Iraq united to defeat ISIL, but can it avoid Break-up Afterwards?

contributors

By Dylan O’Driscoll | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | – – Multiple segments of the population, including at elite level, have come together in the fight against IS and now the time has come for this effort to extend beyond the battle. The Iraqi army recaptured Mosul’s historical al-Nuri mosque and its leaning minaret on June […]

Iraq

Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl

Juan Cole

By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | – – It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an ancient people from Northern Iraq who adhere to a faith rooted in old Iranian religion and influenced by Sufi mysticism). The message was […]

Displaced and Refugees

If US Wars aren’t on TV, are all those 1000s really Dying?

contributors

Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The headlines arrive in my inbox day after day: “U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria killed hundreds of civilians, U.N. panel says.” “Pentagon wants to declare more parts of world as temporary battlefields.” “The U.S. was supposed to leave Afghanistan by 2017. Now it might take decades.” There are […]

Featured

Civilians Fleeing as Battle for Mosul enters last days

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iraqi army has created pathways for civilians trapped in Mosul to escape and at least 100 have managed to flee to safety. The chief of operations for the Elite Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces, Ma’n al-Sa`di, said that his units are engaged in vicious battles despite the […]

Iraq

Can the Sadr Movement in Iraq overcome Sectarianism with new Shiite-Sunni-Kurdish Party?

Juan Cole

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | ( Niqash.org) | – – One of Iraq’s most powerful political groupings, the Sadrist movement, is trying to form a new alliance that may unite secular, Sunni and Kurdish parties. It would be a first for Iraq. But it could also be a trap. The Sadrist movement has had […]

Iraq

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

contributors

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 pulpit at the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul in northern Iraq. He announced the creation of a new Islamic State that stretched […]

Featured

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

Juan Cole

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 destruction of the 800-year-old edifice was undertaken at a time when Iraqi government troops were closing in on this area in Mosul’s Old […]