By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iraqi government has announced that the campaign to take the large northern city of Mosul back from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) has begun in earnest. The Iraqi Army, the Peshmerga (Kurdistan Regional Government national guard), Sunni Arab tribal levies, and Shiite militiamen from the south are […]
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Iraq
ISIL’s loss of Dabiq: It was never about Armageddon, but Weak States
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Albawaba has an interview with political scientist Khalid Rif`at of the Tayyiba Center for Political Studies, saying that the forced withdrawal of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria on Sunday under heavy Turkish army bombardment and in the face of advancing […]
Sunni Clans in Iraq threaten Reprisals against ISIL Collaborators
Kamal al-Ayash | Anbar | (Niqash.org) | – – In Ramadi, tribes are marking houses belonging to suspected Islamic State [group] collaborators with special graffiti. Often the houses are demolished two or three days later. But the tribes can also get it wrong. Graffiti on walls in Ramadi calling for tribal justice. (photo: Kamal al-Ayash) […]
The Graveyard of ISIL
By Mustafa Sadoun | Fallujah | ( Niqash.org) | – – NIQASH visits an ISIL cemetery in Fallujah and finds the hastily built, last resting places of several of the group’s leaders, as well as unusual ideas for what to do with the place in the long run. A still from the Iraqi military’s video […]
As Battle w/ ISIL for Mosul nears, Iraq should exclude Abusive Militias
Human Rights Watch | – – Role of Abusive Armed Forces, Treatment, and Screening of Detainees (Beirut) – The Iraqi government should make a commitment to prevent any armed forces implicated in laws of war violations from participating in planned operations against the extremist armed group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in Mosul, Human […]
In Mosul, ISIL Extremists Wall in Residents, prepare for Armageddon
Special Correspondent | Mosul | (Niqash.org) | – – In Mosul, the Islamic State is preparing for a siege, building walls, tunnels and trenches and boasting that, like the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century, they will be able to withstand any attacks. Locals doubt it. In Mosul, members of the extremist group that control […]
Iraq: Bush DoD paid PR Firm millions to Plant fake I.S. Videos, False Stories
By Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ) | – – The Pentagon gave a controversial UK PR firm over half a billion dollars to run a top secret propaganda programme in Iraq, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. Bell Pottinger’s output included short TV segments made in […]
The Presidential Debate that did not really Happen
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Regular readers will know that in my view the 2016 presidential election did not happen. Likewise, the first debate between the two candidates did not take place. There was no debate as the word is usually understood, where the two take turns setting out policy positions. […]
ISIL used Chem on US Troops in Iraq; but this time US Gov’t isn’t talking WMD
By Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – The group known as Islamic State (IS) reportedly used a sulpur-mustard gas against US troops in Iraq. It was detected in a black oily substance found on a rocket fired at an American airbase in Qayyarah, south of the city of Mosul. None of the soldiers […]