Terrorism

By Juan Cole Sawt al-Iraq [Voice of Iraq] reports that during the past two days, Saudi, UAE and American fighter jets attacks small oil refineries originally built for Syria by Turkey, which had been run by ISIL in Deir Ezzor. the day before yesterday the allies struck 12 refineries that ISIL had been in control […]

GCC

What Arab partners will get in return for strikes on Syria

contributors

By Lars Berger The decision by President Obama to launch missile and air strikes against Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaeda affiliate “Khorasan” in Syria draws the United States ever closer to yet another prolonged military confrontation in the region. But there’s a difference this time: the participation of a coalition of Arab states, variously […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Hidden Camera Reveals Chilling Life Under ISIS Control

contributors

The Young Turks: “”A mother, with an AK-47 slung over her shoulder, walks her child to a playground. A man driving a car orders a woman to cover her face: ‘God loves women who are covered.’ A woman in an Internet cafe, in flawless French, tells her mother that she won’t be coming home: ‘I […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian Media Hail America as Damascus Ally, Support UN Ban on Foreign Fighters

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole Aljazeera Arabic reports on the reaction in Syria to US air strikes against ISIL, which included attacks on Wednesday on their oil installations, an important revenue stream for the terrorist organization. It turns out that the Damascus press is giving President Obama an uncomfortable embrace. This kind of talk is deadly to […]

Iran

Is this Iranian the most powerful man in Iraq?

contributors

BBC “Gabriel Gatehouse reports for BBC Newsnight on the secretive Iranian General described as the most powerful man in Iraq.” BBC Newsnight: “Is this Iranian the most powerful man in Iraq? – Newsnight”

Bashar al-Assad

The Syrian Maelstrom: How Repression, Drought & Climate Change Drove the Civil War

contributors

By Tareq Ramadan Long before March of 2011, when Syrian demonstrations calling for reform and in some cases, regime change, morphed into a full-blown military conflict that has transformed into a supranational bloodbath, the economic and political policies of Bashar Al-Assad’s Baa’thist regime undoubtedly fomented major discontent among various segments of Syria’s population. While both […]

Displaced and Refugees

I lived to see the Day when thousands of Kurds take Refuge in Turkey

contributors

Reuters: “About 60,000 Syrian Kurds flee into Turkey in the space of 24 hours, a deputy prime minister says, as Islamic State fighters seize dozens of villages close to the border. Sarah Toms reports.” For anyone who knows the history of the Turkish government’s dirty war against Kurdish separatists in the 1970s and 1980s, it […]

Iraq

Iraq: Are Sunni Arabs of Kirkuk Province Turning on ISIL?

contributors

Ahmad Mohammed | Kirkuk | via Niqash.org Sunni Muslim extremists continue to kidnap, execute and otherwise impose their authoritarian rule on locals in the areas they control, such as in southwestern Kirkuk. Slowly but surely though, local resistance against them is growing. Tribal leaders suggest an organized, salaried force is in development. On the 12th […]