Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

By Khales Joumah | Mosul | via Niqash.org Dinar worries: some Mosul locals fear that extremists will take all of thier money. Up until now, locals in Mosul, the northern city under the control of Sunni Muslim extremists, have not been able to withdraw their money from their bank accounts. That changed last week. However […]

European Union

Obama & Cameron find little Enthusiasm at NATO for new Iraq War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The NATO summit in Wales was supposed to be all about getting out of Afghanistan. Instead, two new issues dominated it– the Ukraine and ISIL in Iraq and Syria. British prime minister David Cameron joined Barack Obama in castigating NATO members for paying ransoms to ISIL and for not stepping up to […]

Human Rights

Mosul’s First Death By Stoning: Extremists Distract With Displays of Savage Justice

contributors

By Khales Joumah | Mosul | via Niqash.org Mosul locals were invited to witness the city’s first death by stoning late last week – extremists who had taken over the city in early June had sentenced a man to death for adultery. Eyewitnesses say the event was shocking. And many in Mosul expect more of […]

Bashar al-Assad

Would a US/ NATO war in Syria be Legal in International Law?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Efforts are being made in Congress give to President Barack Obama the formal authority to conduct air strikes in Syria against ISIL. Vice President Joe Biden is now talking, as well, about a concerted and long-term NATO response to the brutal fundamentalist movement, which controls desert territory and some oil resources in […]

Counter-Terrorism

Iraq Flashpoint: Can the Kurds defend themselves from ISIL?

contributors

By Verena Gruber, Talalward, Kurdistan (Special to Informed Comment) There is something incredibly odd about seeing the black flag of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)” flapping in the wind; particularly when you see it, not on a television screen, but through a pair of binoculars. Today my journey led me […]

Featured

Iraq: Is the Battle of Amerli a Turning Point?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Iraqi military is maintaining that it has successfully relieved the town of Amerli (pop. 15,000) in northern Iraq from a siege by ISIL (the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). If true, this is the first success of the Baghdad military against ISIL since Mosul fell in early June. […]

Iraq

Iraq Crisis: Will Sunni Tribes of Besieged Falluja Turn on IS There?

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Fallujah | via Niqash.org Recently most of the attention has been on northern Iraq. But military action in western Iraq has been going on for months, after areas came under control of Sunni Muslim extremists and other anti-government groups. Some, like the city of Fallujah, have been under constant attack from […]

Bashar al-Assad

Obama, al-Assad and ISIL update FB Status: It’s Complicated

contributors

AJ+ AJ+ Will The US Bomb IS Group (AKA ISIS) In Syria?

Counter-Terrorism

ISIS: How to Defeat a Phony “Caliphate”

contributors

By John Esposito via Huffington Post Containing and ultimately defeating ISIS will require both short and long-term response. ISIS expansion has been made possible by political conditions in Syria and Iraq, ethnic-religious/sectarian divisions and violence and terror in the region, and the failures of the US and international community. Bashar al-Assad’s unprincipled and disproportionate military […]