Kurds

By Juan Cole al-Khalij [The Gulf] (Sharjah, UAE) reports that the Syrian Human Rights Observatory says ISIL fighters are now in one third of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab). The radical fundamentalists have advanced into the besieged city despite a new round of US and other bombings on its outskirts. In contrast […]

Iran

Is the new US airbase in Iraqi Kurdistan all about Iran?

contributors

By Hiwa Barznjy | Erbil | via Niqash.org NIQASH interviewed Safeen Dizayee, the spokesperson for the government of semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. During a candid and wide ranging conversation, Dizayee spoke about why the US is building a new airbase in the region, where exactly Iraqi Kurdish oil is going and whether refugees in the region […]

Featured

The Last Days of Kobani Loom as ISIL Closes in on Syrian Kurds with Murder on its Mind

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL fighters have advanced into the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab), with fighting in the streets as Kurds resist, according to the pan-Arab daily, al-Hayat [Life]. Kobane, a city ordinarily of about 50,000, is the third biggest town in the Kurdish part of Syria (the far northeast). ISIL has taken […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Why is Kobani Important? ISIS advances against Syrian Kurds despite US Airstrikes

contributors

AJ+ “The Islamic State Group (aka ISIS or ISIL) is knocking on the doors of Kobani, a Syrian town on the border of Turkey. Desperate Kurdish fighters have been battling them for weeks. But it’s not looking so good.” AJ+ “ISIS Prepares To Take Kobani Despite U.S. Airstrikes”

Iraq

Kurdish Forces Under-equipped, Need ground troop Allies: Peshmerga General

contributors

RFE/RL In an interview with Samira Ali Mandee of RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq, General Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the Peshmerga Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdish region, discusses the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants, cooperation with Iraqi and outside militaries, and the mood on the front. RFE/RL: Could you tell us about the security developments along […]

Featured

The Alamo of the Kurds: Kobane Near Falling to ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Ismat Sheikh, commander of the Kurdish forces at the border town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) that is besieged by ISIL tanks and artillery, says that he expects massacres of its inhabitants if it falls to the Sunni Arab extremists. He warned that ISIL fighters are less than a mile from his front […]

Iran

Is this Iranian the most powerful man in Iraq?

contributors

BBC “Gabriel Gatehouse reports for BBC Newsnight on the secretive Iranian General described as the most powerful man in Iraq.” BBC Newsnight: “Is this Iranian the most powerful man in Iraq? – Newsnight”

Displaced and Refugees

I lived to see the Day when thousands of Kurds take Refuge in Turkey

contributors

Reuters: “About 60,000 Syrian Kurds flee into Turkey in the space of 24 hours, a deputy prime minister says, as Islamic State fighters seize dozens of villages close to the border. Sarah Toms reports.” For anyone who knows the history of the Turkish government’s dirty war against Kurdish separatists in the 1970s and 1980s, it […]

Iraq

Iraq: Are Sunni Arabs of Kirkuk Province Turning on ISIL?

contributors

Ahmad Mohammed | Kirkuk | via Niqash.org Sunni Muslim extremists continue to kidnap, execute and otherwise impose their authoritarian rule on locals in the areas they control, such as in southwestern Kirkuk. Slowly but surely though, local resistance against them is growing. Tribal leaders suggest an organized, salaried force is in development. On the 12th […]