Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter gives some idea of thinking in Moscow about the Syrian civil war. Question: Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced criticism over the airstrikes carried out by Russia in Syria, leaving the impression that relations […]

Barack Obama

After Obama-Salman Summit, will Saudi finally rein in Wahhabi Radicalism?

contributors

Christopher R. Hill | Project Syndicate | – – DENVER – US President Barack Obama supposedly “cleared the air” with Saudi King Salman before the latest meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. Given how strained the bilateral relationship is – a situation long in the making – that was probably […]

Featured

The End of American Iraq: Poor Shiites invade Parliament over corrupt Spoils System

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Baghdad is under a state of emergency on Sunday a day after members of the Sadr Trend stormed the Green Zone and invaded the parliament building, briefly imprisoning parliamentarians in the chamber (and some in a basement) before letting them go. Some apparently were beaten as […]

Internet

ISIL to Trapped people of Mosul: No TV or Internet for You!

contributors

Niqash.org | (Mosul) | – – The Islamic State has issued orders banning satellite TV because it spreads false news. They’re also demanding all Internet users’ names to find spies sending information for airstrikes. He began his conversation on Facebook in an unusually serious way. Abdul Hamid*, a man living in Mosul, the northern Iraqi […]

Human Rights Watch

UN must hold Perpetrators accountable for War Crime of Hospital Bombings: HRW

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – An airstrike on April 27, 2016, that hit al-Quds Hospital and surrounding areas, killed 58 civilians, including medical staff and many patients, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, an opposition search-and-rescue volunteer group. On April 29, another airstrike hit a clinic in the opposition-held al-Marja neighborhood, injuring 10 people, […]

Featured

‘Monstrous’ violence in Aleppo as ‘Regime of Calm’ begins in rest of Syria

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole: The US and the Russian Federation agreed Friday that from Saturday there would be a “regime of calm” in most of Syria. Two areas where clashes have broken out in the past week are East Ghouta east of Damascus and the northern countryside of the Mediterranean province of Latakia (72 hours), and […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

ISIL Digging in Against new US Troops in Syria

contributors

By By James Miller| ( RFE/RL ) | – – On June 29, 2014, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave a speech from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq, announcing the formation of an Islamic caliphate, the newly proclaimed [so-called] "Islamic State" did indeed have many of the hallmarks of an actual state. It […]

Iraq

Will it ever be ‘Mission Accomplished’? Why Baghdad is Still Insecure

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – The outskirts of Baghdad are very dangerous these days. Islamic State fighters hide here, mounting attacks on the city. A security barrier is planned but the real issue is intractable. While Baghdad is still the venue for many suicide bombers and car bombs, it is […]

Featured

Syria: As fierce Fighting reignites, Aleppo on brink of ‘Humanitarian Disaster’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syria’s largest city, Aleppo has seen a worrying outbreak of violence in the past week that could fatally undermine the cessation of hostilities that had held between most Free Syrian Army units and the Syrian Arab Army. The ceasefire did not extend to al-Qaeda or Daesh […]