Islam

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – In a bold move, Daesh (i.e. ISIL or ISIS) fighters moved Monday on Kirkuk and Erbil, two cities patrolled by the Iraqi Kurdistan paramilitary, the Peshmerga (those who stand before death). Erbil is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Kirkuk is an oil city and is disputed among Turkmen, […]

Iraq

Iraq: Sunni Sheikh Killed trying to Mediate between Shiite, Sunni Extremists

contributors

By Erin Evers | (Human Rights Watch) In Latifiyya, a small town 20 miles south of Baghdad, fighting has been raging since long before the armed conflict that erupted when the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) took over Mosul. For at least two years state security forces and government-backed militias have been battling Sunni […]

Iraq

Iraqi Gov’t AWOL: It’s Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State

contributors

VICE News | – “Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious “caliphate” in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic […]

Iran

2nd Iranian Commander killed in Iraq defending Samarra Golden Dome

contributors

By RFE/RL | – A commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been killed in Iraq, Iranian media reported. The Tasnim news agency, said to be affiliated with IRGC, says Reza Hosseini Moghadam was in Samarra to confront militants of the Islamic State (IS) when he was killed on February 7. “He [Moghadam] […]

Houthi

Shiite Coup in Yemen: $400 mn. in US Weaponry Falls into Houthi Hands

contributors

Euronews | – “The United Nations and the United States have condemned Yemen’s dominant Houthi group for dissolving parliament. The move was also denounced by the country’s main political faction as a coup. Houthi rebel leaders, however, say a new interim assembly and government will be formed as swiftly as possible. Gamal Al-Soudi, the Houthi […]

Iraq

The Other Sinjar Massacre: As Iraq’s ISIL driven Back, Reprisals against Sunni Collaborators

contributors

Khales Joumah | Mosul | (Niqash.org) – As extremists from the Islamic State group are slowly driven out of northern Iraq, members of one of the groups that suffered at their hands – the Yazidis – began to take revenge on locals they say collaborated with them. This week several villages were looted and burned […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

After Charlie Hebdo: How Will Europe Deal with Islam and Muslims?

contributors

By Neslihan Çevik | (Daily Sabah) – After the tragic Charlie Hebdo massacre, it seems that Europe has several options regarding its policies on Islam and Muslims. Among them, the easiest option is to maximize security precautions in order to exercise absolute control over Muslims If 9/11 was the start of a moral panic in […]

Featured

Ironies of Empire: US now Allied with Shiites Trained by Assassinated HIzbullah Leader

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah […]

Iraq

With US Tanks, are Iraq’s Shiite Militias getting stronger than the Army?

contributors

by Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) – Iraq’s unofficial Shiite militias are an essential part of the fight against the extremist Islamic State group. But they act independently of the army, and are sometimes brutally murderous. Army officers now note that the militias have better weapons and better working conditions and that’s why their […]