Terrorism

SALFIT (Ma’an) — A large group of Israeli settlers on Saturday morning violently beat a young Palestinian woman while she was picking olives from trees in an orchard in the village of Yasuf in the Salfit district in the central West Bank, a Palestinian official said. The assault is the third such attack on Palestinian […]

Iraq

Iraq’s Sole Yazidi Lawmaker Says 25,000 Girls Abducted By ISIL To Be Raped, Sold

contributors

By Freshta Jalalzai and Luke Johnson via RFE/RL Iraq's only ethnic Yazidi member of parliament says that the human rights situation in her country is "deteriorating," with Islamic State (IS) militants kidnapping, raping, and selling Yazidi women. "They are still without any shelter. They are sleeping on the streets. The situation is not good and the […]

Arab Spring

Will Egypt Intervene in Libya as part of Generals’ War on Political Islam?

contributors

CCTV Africa: “Pressure is growing on Egypt’s government to intervene in Libya. That’s after the emergence this week of an Islamic State-style caliphate – close to the Egyptian border. Many in Cairo say, the government needs to deploy military force in Libya, to crush the threat.” CCTV Africa: “Pressure mounting on Egyptian government to intervene […]

Featured

ISIL takes one third of strategic Kobane in Syria, loses Tuz Khurmato in Iraq

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole al-Khalij [The Gulf] (Sharjah, UAE) reports that the Syrian Human Rights Observatory says ISIL fighters are now in one third of the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab). The radical fundamentalists have advanced into the besieged city despite a new round of US and other bombings on its outskirts. In contrast […]

Israel

Israel Squatters Chop Down Dozens of Palestinian Olive Trees Near Nablus (800,000 since 1967)

contributors

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Monday chopped down dozens of olive trees on Palestinian agricultural lands in the Nablus district, an official said. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said that settlers from Tuffah chopped down around 100 olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the village […]

Featured

The Last Days of Kobani Loom as ISIL Closes in on Syrian Kurds with Murder on its Mind

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL fighters have advanced into the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane (`Ayn al-`Arab), with fighting in the streets as Kurds resist, according to the pan-Arab daily, al-Hayat [Life]. Kobane, a city ordinarily of about 50,000, is the third biggest town in the Kurdish part of Syria (the far northeast). ISIL has taken […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Why is Kobani Important? ISIS advances against Syrian Kurds despite US Airstrikes

contributors

AJ+ “The Islamic State Group (aka ISIS or ISIL) is knocking on the doors of Kobani, a Syrian town on the border of Turkey. Desperate Kurdish fighters have been battling them for weeks. But it’s not looking so good.” AJ+ “ISIS Prepares To Take Kobani Despite U.S. Airstrikes”

Displaced and Refugees

You’ll Never Believe what ISIL has done to Iraq’s al-Anbar Population

contributors

BAGHDAD/DUBAI, 6 October 2014 (IRIN) – Nine months of shelling, airstrikes and street battles have taken a heavy toll on Iraq’s “forgotten” province of Anbar, the first to be overrun by militants from the group now calling itself the Islamic State (IS). The cities of Ramadi and Fallujah have been reduced to bombed-out wrecks: hospitals, […]

Featured

Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is acting in Syria as an adjunct to the Syrian Baath Army and helped reduce Qusayr and Homs last spring. The Syrian rebels were […]