The Obama administration’s fruitless search for effective Sunni “moderate” fighters in Syria continues, with the announcement of a $500 million grant to them for training and weaponry. This policy seems in part to be driven by Saudi Arabia from abroad and by liberal interventionists, including Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Susan […]
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Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
Iraqi Idol: Tikrit Woman who Confronted ISIS Becomes Internet Sensation
By Osama Hassan | Tikrit Sad story: Tikrit woman Umiyia Jibara was killed by an ISIS sniper. In a country currently full of sad tales, the tragic death of a Tikrit women’s affairs adviser has drawn particular attention. The Sunni Muslim woman was supporting her family as they stood against Sunni Muslim extremists when she […]
Is it ISIS? French, Saudi Suicide Bombers Target Beirut
Via al-Akhbar English: A suicide bomber blew himself up as security forces raided his hotel room in Beirut’s Raouche district Wednesday evening, injuring at least 11 people, in the third such blast to strike Lebanon in less than one week. Firefighters rushed to extinguish flames on the third floor of the Duroy Hotel near the […]
Neo-Zangid State erases Syria-Iraq Border, cuts Hizbullah off from Iran
By Juan Cole With the alleged fall to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of Qa’im on Saturday, and of Talafar a few days ago, the border between Iraq and Syria has now been effectively erased. A new country exists, stretching from the outskirts of Baghdad all the way to Aleppo. In history, it […]
Inside Mosul: ISIS fears Popular Uprising; Baathists cry Foul
By a Special Correspondent via Niqash.org NIQASH’s correspondent takes a walk around Mosul to see how the city has changed since extremists took it over last week. Despite masked men at checkpoints and burned out military facilities, things are strangely calm. Two hundred meters from the eastern entrance to Mosul, the Iraqi Kurdish taxi driver […]
Iraq is more like N. Ireland than Lebanon, Reconciliation is Possible
By Jocelyne Cesari The attack of The Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) on Mossul and its march on Baghdad has taken the international community by surprise and raised the possibility of another US intervention in Iraq, with the hope it could prevent the downfall of the country into a sectarian war. Such […]
Why some Iraqis would rather try their luck under Sunni Extremists
ERBIL, Iraq — Five days after fleeing Mosul in northern Iraq, Ahmed says he’s now more nervous than ever. But it’s not the Al Qaeda-inspired extremists who took over his hometown that have him worried. No, he’s scared of what his own military might…
7 Myths about the Radical Sunni Advance in Iraq
By Juan Cole Already in the past week and a half, many assertions are becoming commonplace in the inside-the-Beltway echo chamber about Iraq’s current crisis that are poorly grounded in knowledge of the country. Here are some sudden truisms that should be rethought. 1. “The Sunni radicals of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria […]
Enter the Ayatollah: Sistani calls on Iraqis to enlist in Fight against “Terrorists”
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of most Iraqi Shiites, intervened forcefully in Iraqi politics on Thursday and Friday, giving his support to the national army and urging Iraqi men to volunteer to enlist and to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He termed the hyper-Sunni group, which has taken over the […]