Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

VICE News | (Video report) | – “A year after the Islamic State’s lightning conquest of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, the poorly-trained and equipped Kurdish peshmerga forces are the international coalition’s only reliable boots on the ground in northern Iraq. The Pentagon’s hopes of recapturing the city by spring 2015 have been dashed by […]

Iraq

Has US started Arming Iraq’s Shiite Militias against ISIL/ Daesh?

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) The hostility between the US and Iraq’s Shiite militias seems to have slowed. One leading militia member even went to the US. Is this the beginning of a new, happier relationship and closer battle field cooperation? Last week Captain Amir al-Saadi, whose unit is based in the Habbaniyah camp […]

Human Rights

A Year after the Fall of Mosul, Yazidi Kurdish Survivors of ISIL Massacres Struggle On

contributors

VICE News | (Video Report) | – – “A year after the Islamic State’s lightning conquest of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, the poorly-trained and equipped Kurdish peshmerga forces are the international coalition’s only reliable boots on the ground in northern Iraq. The Pentagon’s hopes of recapturing the city by spring 2015 have been dashed […]

Iran

Saudi Arabia Fixated on Iran When Sunni Extremists Are Real Threat

contributors

By Russ Wellen | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – “Saudi Arabia’s perceived need to keep Iran at bay is distracting it from the danger that the Islamic State poses to its regime. Walking with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is intent on […]

Arab Spring

ISIL and the Middle East Generational Shift (with Juan Cole)

Juan Cole

Elliot Hill | (The LipTV Video) | – – “With ISIS rampaging through Syria and Iraq, and a generational shift in politics and religion happening across the Middle East, we dissect some of the political changes happening in the region with author Juan Cole. The dual advance of secularism and violent fundamentalism, islamophobia in the […]

Barack Obama

Obama: We don’t have a “complete strategy” against ISIL

contributors

CBS News | (Video Report) | – – “President Obama said Monday the United States does not have a complete plan to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying Baghdad needs to show a greater commitment to building a fighting force. “We don’t yet have a […]

Bush

Did Jeb Bush’s brother “Create ISIL” in Iraq?

contributors

by Brian Glyn Williams It was one of those moments that politicians dread. An unscripted incident last month when a voice in a crowd pinned down a candidate on an issue he could not squirm away from and made news in the process. With the media recording every word, a 19 year old college student […]

Iraq

Weapons of the Wet: ISIL/ Daesh Cuts water to Iraqi Towns south of Ramadi

contributors

Ben Wedeman | (CNN Video) | – – “Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) ISIS has closed off a dam to the north of the Iraqi city of Ramadi — seized by its forces last month — cutting water supplies to pro-government towns downstream and making it easier for its fighters to attack forces loyal to Baghdad, local […]

Displaced and Refugees

Caught in ISIL crossfire, 8.2 Million Iraqis In Need of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance

contributors

By Kanya D’Almeida | – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As fighting drags on between Iraqi armed forces and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), millions of refugees caught between the warring groups are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Speaking at an appeal launch at the European Parliament in Brussels Thursday, Lise […]