Iraq

Press TV | (Video) — Reports coming out of Iraq suggest that government forces have managed to recapture a 5-kilometer area in the west of the flashpoint city. The latest advances follow fierce battles with the Takfiri terrorists. Dozens of terrorists have already been killed in the confrontation. Iraqi volunteer forces are advancing on Ramadi […]

Iraq

Kurdish Muslims abandoning Islam for Zoroastrianism in Disgust at ISIL/ Daesh?

contributors

By Alaa Latif | (Niqash.org) The small, ancient religion of Zoroastrianism is being revived in northern Iraq. Followers say locals should join because it’s a truly Kurdish belief. Others say the revival is a reaction to extremist Islam. One of the smallest and oldest religions in the world is experiencing a revival in the semi-autonomous […]

Iraq

Nasty, New Neighbours: How Close Will Extremists Get To Baghdad?

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – The fall of Ramadi means that Baghdad, Karbala and Babel have unpleasant new neighbours in the Islamic State group. How long before the extremists are in the capital’s backyard? At one stage it seemed as though the chances of the extremist group known as the Islamic State entering […]

Displaced and Refugees

85,000 Refugees from Ramadi Restricted from Entering Baghdad, despite 110°F Heat

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – (Beirut) – Iraqi authorities are preventing thousands of families fleeing the fighting in Ramadi from reaching safer parts of the country. The government of Iraq has primary responsibility for protecting internally displaced people and should allow those fleeing danger in Ramadi or elsewhere to enter safer areas. Since April 2015, […]

Colonialism

Kaplan’s Fantasies of Empire and the Myth of the Arab Strongman

contributors

By Ari Heistein | (Informed Comment) | – Robert Kaplan explains the current conflicts in the Middle East as the inevitable results of the withdrawal of colonial powers which led to a vacuum of power filled by Arab strongmen who then fell and then left the Middle East back in its natural state– chaos and […]

Featured

Iraq: Shiite Militias change Ramadi Campaign to “I’m Here, O Iraq”, capture southern reaches

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – After an outcry and Pentagon criticism, the Shiite militias in Iraq have changed their name for their current campaign to take Ramadi from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) from “I am here, O Husayn’ to “I am here, O Iraq.” A spokesman for the militias said that the two […]

Featured

Shiite Militias announce “Here I am, O Husayn” Campaign for Sunni Ramadi

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Shiite militias in Iraq, joined by some Sunni tribal levies, on Tuesday reached a university campus just to the southwest of Ramadi in what is called a “shaping operation” intended to set the stage for an all-out assault. There were some scattered firefights with Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) […]

Featured

Is it the US that isn’t stepping up to fight Daesh/ ISIL?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s blunt remarks on Sunday about the Iraqi army not having the will to fight have ruffled feathers in Baghdad and Tehran, and Vice President Joe Biden was constrained to call Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi and reassure him that the US was standing […]

al-Qaeda

Did the US DIA see ISIL as a strategic Ally against al-Assad in 2012?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)- The answer, in a word, is “no.” Fabius Maximus is right that this is just a clickbait story or an unfounded conspiracy theory. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s correct assessment of where things were going in Syria, done in 2012, doesn’t say that the US created sectarian groups and it […]