Iraq

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) lashed out at the civilian population in Iraq on Tuesday with three bombings and over 60 casualties. With its signature warped sadism, the organization sent a suicide bomber with a truck into a crowded square in the upscale, largely Shiite shopping district of […]

Iraq

Mosul curses ISIL corpses: “Beguiled by promises of Virgins, you’re Garbage now”

contributors

Special Correspondent | (Mosul) | (Niqash.org) | – – NIQASH’s Mosul correspondent left the city shortly after the extremist Islamic State group took over. But most of his family remained. After 34 months, he returned home. This is what he found. When I left Mosul on July 1, 2014 – fearing for my life because […]

Dissent

Iraq Parliament Mulls ending Freedom of Assembly

contributors

By Afef Abrougui | ( Globalvoices.org) | – – When armed men in civilian clothes kidnapped journalist Afrah Shawqi from her home on 26 December 2016, journalists and activists quickly took to the street to demand that the government take action to ensure her safety and her immediate release. Iraq's parliament is currently reviewing a […]

Iraq

Revival of Iraqi Communism among Youth alarms Shiite Militias

contributors

Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – – Last week’s kidnapping of seven activists in Baghdad could be another sign of increasing tensions between secular parties in Iraq and the country’s ruling religious groups. Is history repeating? Last week, an unidentified armed group kidnapped a number of younger civil society activists from their small apartment in […]

Donald Trump

Mosul on My Mind: What It Really Means to Be on a Flattening Planet

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The closest I ever got to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was 1,720.7 miles away — or so the Internet assures me. Although I’ve had a lifelong interest in history, I know next to nothing about Mosul’s, nor do I have more than a glancing sense […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

After Mosul: The Coming ISIL Apocalypse in al-Anbar Desert

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – While fighting against the Islamic State group drags on in Mosul, tribal and military forces in Anbar are preparing for what will likely be the final battle against the extremists. But this fight will take many months. Many Iraqis and international observers are continuing to […]

Featured

What will new French President Macron do about Syria & ISIL?

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that Emmanuel Macron is president of France, it is worthwhile asking what sort of foreign policy he would be likely to pursue. The French presidential system is more centralized than the American. I once did some consulting at the Quai D’Orsay, the French Foreign Ministry, […]

Featured

It was ISIL, not Hackers, who Hijacked French Election

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – That hackers, most likely Russia-linked, were trying to throw the French election to Marine Le Pen this weekend by releasing thousands of emails from her opponent Emmanuel Macron, probably struck too late to achieve their goal. They were counting on the rule that candidates may not […]

Iraq

Can Iraq’s Sunni Politicians agree on post-ISIL Future?

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – “Iraq’s Sunni Muslims desperately need their politicians to present a united front and act in their interests. But the politicians cannot agree on a vision for the post-Islamic State future.” Last Sunday, Iraqi parliamentarians voted to ban their colleagues from participating in conferences held outside the […]