Arab World

Akil Awan | (Informed Comment) | – – I recently visited Jordan as part of my work on political violence and youth radicalisation for the United Nations on Security Council Resolution 2250. Jordan borders Syria to its north, and although Jordanians display a remarkable sense of normalcy in their everyday lives, visitors cannot really escape […]

Arab World

Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

contributors

By Christopher M. Davidson | (Informed Comment) | – – Swept along on a tidal wave of euphoria, by spring 2011 many had cautiously begun to believe that the wave of Arab uprisings that had already managed to topple the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak would herald the dawn of […]

Iraq War

A Gwen Ifill Interview with Juan Cole on Iraq & US Withdrawal: In Memoriam

Juan Cole

Gwen Ifill/ Juan Cole | (PBS NewsHour) | – – Gwen Ifill, long-time co-anchor of the PBS Newshour, is dead at 61, after a battle with cancer. She was an expert interviewer, and she discussed Iraq with me many times on the NewsHour. I was so lucky to have been on with her. Ifill was […]

Featured

Putin targets East Aleppo rebels; Did Trump’s Election doom them?

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Some 2,000 rebel fighters, most of them Muslim fundamentalists, others remnants of the Free Syrian Army, are trying to break the Syrian regime’s blockade of East Aleppo. But they may soon face cruise missiles launched at them from Russian submarines in the Mediterranean, along with other […]

Iraq

Iraq’s Mosul Campaign: ISIL using civilians as Human Shields

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – All Forces Should Take Necessary Precautions to Protect Civilians (Erbil) – In areas around Mosul, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is forcibly evacuating civilians under their control with its fighters, apparently to use them as human shields. There are also grave concerns that ISIS is rounding up […]

Iraq

Mosul Is My Hometown, Here Is Why ISIL Was Able To Stay There

contributors

Special Correspondent | Baghdad | Niqash.org | – – NIQASH’s Mosul correspondent explains why people in the city did not resist the [so-called] Islamic State group at first, why his family and others decided to stay and how extremists kept control of a city of around 2 million. Mohammed* is NIQASH’s Mosul correspondent. He grew […]

Iraq

Payback Time: Mosul Militias Backstabbed By ISIL Plot Revenge

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – It’s not only the Iraqi army gunning for the Islamic State in Mosul. The extremists’ former allies, who helped them control the city, have also declared a desire for revenge, two years after they were betrayed. On October 17, just before dawn in Iraq, the […]

Arab Americans

Are Arabs White?

contributors

Dena Takruri | (AJ+ Vidoe Report) | – – “White” – without the privilege. Arab-Americans are ready to check their own box on the U.S. census. Dena Takruri explains.” AJ+: “Are Arabs ‘White’?”

Displaced and Refugees

Civilians in both Aleppos are Hurting

contributors

By Hadeel al-Shalchi | (Human Rights Watch) | – – The small child cries hysterically on the hospital bed, covered in dust and blood. The video, posted by the pro-Syrian government news agency al-Akhbariya, shows scene after scene of civilian men, women, and children injured from what they say were rockets launched by armed opposition […]