Sunnis

Human Rights Watch | (New York) – Militias, volunteer fighters, and Iraqi security forces engaged in deliberate destruction of civilian property after these forces, following US and Iraqi air strikes, forced the retreat of Islamic State fighters (also known as ISIS) from the town of Amerli and surrounding areas in early September 2014, Human Rights […]

Egypt

Could Sunni-Shiite Rift make Tikrit a Pyrrhic Victory? Al-Azhar & Shiite Militias

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The foremost Sunni Muslim seat of learning, al-Azhar University in Cairo, has stirred controversy by issuing a considered legal opinion (fatwa) condemning the Shiite militias or “Popular Mobilization Forces” that are now fighting alongside the Iraq army to take Tikrit back from Daesh (ISIL or ISIS). To be fair, […]

Featured

Ghosts of Saladin, Saddam & Khomeini: Tikrit Campaign’s Historical Meaning

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Iraqi forces (one-third army, two-thirds Shiite militias) that are surrounding Tikrit 80 miles north of Baghdad are not just Iraqi forces. They are mostly Shiite, though some Sunni irregulars have joined them. More important, the Tikrit campaign is being directed as to its strategy by Qasim Sulaimani, […]

Iraq

From Iraq’s Next big Front: Kurdish Fighters Closing in on Mosul

contributors

VICE News | – “With the timeline unclear for a forthcoming US-led coalition assault on the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Mosul, Kurdish peshmerga fighters continue to man the trenches at the strategic junction of Keske, just outside the northern Iraqi city. VICE News traveled to Keske to meet with peshmerga fighters and to learn […]

History

ISIL vs the Graven Idols of History

contributors

By Elliott Colla | (Baghdad Central) – ISIS’s destruction of antiquities at the Mosul Museum and the ancient city of Nimrud has generated a lot of discussion and disgust, all of it well deserved. But much of what has been said fails to adequately contextualize these attacks in two ways. First, in the history of […]

Iran

US Gen.: Iran’s Role In Iraq’s Fight Against Islamic State Might be Positive

contributors

By Frud Bezhan | (RFE/RL) The Iraqi government has launched an offensive against Islamic State militants (IS) in the northern city of Tikrit, but Iran appears to be leading the charge. The Islamic republic has officially downplayed its role in the fight against IS in Iraq, saying its involvement was limited to training Iraqi Shi'ite […]

Iraq

The problem with Iraq’s offensive against the Islamic State

contributors

BAGHDAD (IRIN) – As the Iraqi army and affiliated militias sweep into northern Iraq to try to re-take the city of Tikrit from so-called Islamic State (IS), the local civilians are fearful they may be punished for the crimes of the Islamist militants. A force of around 30,000 made up of army soldiers and government-backed Shia […]

Featured

Yemen: Saudi backs Sunni revolution against Shiite Houthi Rebels linked to Iran

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Yemen Voice reports that Wahhabi Saudi Arabia has launched an all out political offensive against the Shiite Houthi rebels who have taken over the north of the country. The Houthis took the capital last September but kept the government in place until recently, when they made a full […]

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 […]