Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Channel 4 News: “Islamic State releases a video showing the murder of US journalist James Foley, apparently at the hands of a British jihadi fighter. Barack Obama says he will continue to do what he can to protect US citizens.” Channel 4 News: “How will the US respond to James Foley murder?”

Iraq

Five things to Know about the Peshmerga Fighters of Iraqi Kurdistan

contributors

AJ+ “The Peshmerga are seen as one of the only forces who can defeat the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL. But who are the Peshmerga and what are they fighting for?” AJ+ The Peshmerga of Iraqi Kurdistan

Featured

ISIS to US: We’ll drown you in Blood; beheads US Journalist, Holds Tikrit

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Iraqi military made a push on Tikrit north of Baghdad on Tuesday, but had to call off their campaign when they ran into minefields, booby-trapped buildings, sniping and artillery and mortar fire on the part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now styles itself the “Islamic State” […]

Iraq

Inside Mosul: A Yearning for Deliverance from IS Radicals

contributors

By Khales Joumah | Mosul | niqash | NIQASH listens in on a conversation between Mosul locals to find out how they feel about US air strikes on their city and the Sunni Muslim extremists controlling it. Some support the use of force, others fear what will happen if the extremists are driven out and […]

Iraq

Sexual violence as a war strategy in Iraq

contributors

By Nazand Begikhani via Your Middle East “These are strategic theories of rape in wartime which have been deliberately practiced by IS jihadists in Syria and now in Iraq,” writes Dr Nazand Begikhani. In the last few days, while the world has been overwhelmed by the flow of information about atrocities committed by Islamic State […]

Iraq

Nightmare in Iraq

contributors

Joe Stork via Human Rights Watch Fearing for their lives, more than 150,000 Yezidis fled Sinjar and surrounding villages to mountains north of the city on August 3, 2014 when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked the area. Some young and elderly are dying from the harsh conditions. I visited a Yezidi […]

Iraq

The US intervened again in Iraq in Part to Save the Yazidis: Who are They?

contributors

By Petr Kubalek via RFE/RL Islamic militants this week encircled thousands of members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, prompting the Obama administration to carry out humanitarian air drops to the refugees who fled their homes to Mount Sinjar. Here are answers to six questions about the Yazidi people, religion, and history. Who Are […]

Iraq

Iraq: Tribes and other Sunnis begin Splitting from so-Called “Islamic State”

contributors

By Shalaw Mohammed | Kirkuk | via Niqash.org The Sunni Muslim extremist group that has taken over parts of Iraq recently is dependent on support from locals in the areas it wants to control. Recently one group of locals tried to leave – they wanted open roads, prisoner releases and a truce with their neighbours. […]

Christianity

New Wave of Christian Refugees as “Islamic State” Takes Iraq’s Largest Christian Town

contributors

By Middle East Eye “Christians have fled from the largest Christian city in Iraq as the militants of the Islamic State took control. They were given a choice of death, fleeing, conversion or taxation, after IS over powered the much vaunted Kurdish peshmerga.” Middle East Eye: “Christians flee Qaraqoush in Iraq as Islamic State takes […]