Iraq

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a sign of China’s increasingly powerful role in Central Asia and the Middle East, on Tuesday a Chinese train arrived in Tehran after a 14-day journey. The freight train just used existing rail links to go from China to Kazakhstan, then to Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan, […]

Iraq

Confirmed: ISIL used Mustard Gas Against Kurds in Iraq

contributors

TeleSur | – – A chemical weapons investigator confirmed earlier reports that the extremist group used the banned chemical weapon. [ISIL] used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants last year, Reuters reported Monday. The August 2015 attack occurred near Erbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdish Iraq. About 35 Kurdish troops were attacked with mustard gas, according […]

Arab World

VICE Special Report: Fighting Isis (Ben Anderson Debrief)

Nicholas Kolenda

Ben Anderson of VICE gives a chilling report on Da’esh: the events that led to their rise and the situation as of today.

Iraq

The Evil Genie U.S. Let Out of Bottle in Iraq Continues His Rampage

contributors

By Russ Wellen | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – As time passes, whatever responsibility Americans took for atrocities in Iraq, which are ongoing, has almost completely disappeared. The word “genie” comes from the Arab jinni. As every child knows, it describes a creature that, when summoned, fulfills your wishes. Doesn’t it seem […]

Featured

The Final Breakup of Iraq? Barzani calls for Kurdistan Referendum

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, has called for an immediate non-binding referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan over whether its people want to secede from Iraq and form an independent Kurdish state. A delegation from the KRG visited Baghdad yesterday, as well, headed by […]

Displaced and Refugees

Not just Madaya: A million people under Food Sieges in Mideast

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Despite international laws prohibiting the use of starvation against civilians, forces on all sides preventing aid from reaching blockaded towns in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq As crises in the Middle East escalate, food has become a weapon of war. A new Associated Press analysis […]

Iraq

The Kurdish Women fighters taking on Daesh/ ISIL: An Eyewitness Account

contributors

By Brian Glyn Williams | (Informed Comment) | – – It was the sort of invitation that causes both excitement and trepidation, an invite to visit the autonomous mountain enclave in northern Iraq known as Kurdistan to carry out field research. It was exciting because we were being given an “inside track” to a moderate […]

Iraq

How Bad Is The Violence In Iraq?

contributors

AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “A UN report on the violence in Iraq from January 2014 to October 2015 makes for sober reading. 19,000 civilians were killed, 36,000 injured and 3,500 are being held hostage by ISIS. ” AJ+: “How Bad Is The Violence In Iraq?”