Iraq

By Juan Cole A series of bombings and shootings left some 35 dead in Iraq on Saturday, following on a massacre of 68 worshipers Friday at a Sunni Mosque in mixed Diyala Province. This violence was strategic, not random. One side effect was a severe setback in the attempt of Haydar al-Abadi, the prime minister […]

Barack Obama

Obama’s budding Cambodia Policy in Syria

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Former British ambassador to the United States Sir Christoher Meyer is advocating that the US and Western Europe stop advocating the overthrow of the Baath regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and instead coordinate with it to move against the so-called “Islamic State,” which controls some predominantly Sunni Muslim desert towns on […]

Energy

Iraq: If Terrorists hit Southern Iraq oil fields, $5-$7 a gallon Gas?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Iraq’s former oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, warned on Thursday that the so-called “Islamic State” terrorist organization could hit the Iraqi oil fields in the south around Basra. Basra is deep in the Shiite south, so IS could not take the city of 2 million as it did largely Sunni Mosul. But […]

Featured

What do Iraq’s Sunni Arabs have in common with Ferguson, Mo. African-Americans?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole If prime minister-designate Haydar al-Abadi in Iraq is to hope to defeat the so-called “Islamic State” (actually a kind of mafia made up of serial murderers and marauders), he must find a way to re-incorporate Iraq’s Sunni Arabs into the government, which has been dominated by Shiite religious parties since 2005, partly […]

Iraq

Five things to Know about the Peshmerga Fighters of Iraqi Kurdistan

contributors

AJ+ “The Peshmerga are seen as one of the only forces who can defeat the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL. But who are the Peshmerga and what are they fighting for?” AJ+ The Peshmerga of Iraqi Kurdistan

Featured

ISIS to US: We’ll drown you in Blood; beheads US Journalist, Holds Tikrit

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Iraqi military made a push on Tikrit north of Baghdad on Tuesday, but had to call off their campaign when they ran into minefields, booby-trapped buildings, sniping and artillery and mortar fire on the part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now styles itself the “Islamic State” […]

Iraq

In Iraq, it isn’t just about minorities: The “Infidels” attacked by the so-called “Islamic State” include the Sunnis, Too

contributors

By Ali A. Olomi The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has declared war on “kafirs.” According to most observers, this term as ISIS uses it refers to Christians, Yazidi, and Shia Muslims. But this is far more than a conflict that pits Muslim versus Yazidi or Christian, or even Sunni vs Shia. To […]

Featured

Can al-Abadi win over Iraq’s Moderate Sunnis?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Arguably, the so-called Islamic State (actually a vicious gang of serial killers) could never have taken over northern and Western Iraq if the largely Sunni Arab populations there had not been deeply alienated from the government in Baghdad by the openly sectarian politics of former Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki systematically […]