Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An official in the support network for the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria said Sunday that a Hamas-affiliated group is fighting the Islamic State in Damascus’ Yarmouk refugee camp. Ayman Abu Hashem told Ma’an that the Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdes group was fighting IS despite a decision by PLO factions to remain neutral […]

Iraq

Eyewitness: How the Bush invasion of Iraq created the ISIL Threat

contributors

Lindsey Hilsum | (Channel 4 News) – “Learn how the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by the US and its allies, led to sectarian violence, terror and sowed the seeds of the Islamic State. Our International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, recounts her experiences of Iraq during the first months of conflict and explains how ISIS has grown […]

Iraq

The Forgotten Iraq Front: ISIL besieges the People of Ramadi

contributors

VICE News | – “In early March, while the world was watching Iraqi government forces advance on the Islamic State (IS) in Tikrit, IS was launching a series of assaults on what little remains of the Government-held parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi, which has been under siege for over a year. On the morning […]

Iraq

US Air Strikes Split Iraq Coalition aiming to Take Tikrit

contributors

By Paul Rogers | (The Conversation) – So it has begun – the US is bombing Tikrit, once a stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s regime and now held by Islamic State militants. Strategically and symbolically important, Tikrit has been a fierce battleground for weeks, as Iraqi government troops and Shia militias have fought fierce street battles […]

Iraq

Why The Iraqi Army Is Stuck On The Outskirts of Tikrit

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) – (Baghdad) – The offensive to re-take Tikrit from extremists seems to have stalled as troops surround the city but cannot go further. The same thing is happening elsewhere. And there are three main reasons why. While stopped on the edges of the city of Tikrit, Captain Ahmad Mahmoud says […]

Featured

Mideast Apocalypse 2030: Why Obama wants the Palestine Issue Solved. Now.

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – It began in Hebron, which Palestinians call “al-Khalil,” the city of Abraham. Hundreds of thousands of Israel squatters had been enticed into this Palestinian city of 400,000 by the Likud government with cheap rent in cookie-cutter apartment buildings constructed on stolen Palestinian land. The raids on Palestinian olive […]

Arab World

The Rise of ISIL & the Political Bankruptcy of Arab Politics in the Levant

contributors

By Ali R. Abootalebi | (Informed Comment) The rise of the so called ‘the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (al-Sham)’ or the ISIL—the Daesh in Arabic—is fundamentally the result of both the poverty of Arab Politics and the failure of the Islamic clerical leadership in formulating and institutionalizing the mechanics necessary for modern governance. […]

Displaced and Refugees

Iraq: Shiite Militia atrocities During Fight Against ISIL & Iraq’s Response

contributors

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, […]