‘Crashing waves’ of jihadists fray soldiers’ nerves in Mosul battle
By Dominic Evans and Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD – Reuters A week after his tank division punched through Islamic State defenses on the southeast edge of Mosul, an Iraqi army colonel says the fight to drive the militants out of their urban stronghold is turning into a nightmare. Against a well-drilled, mobile and brutally […]
Pledge Your Allegiance: Iraqi Policemen Who ‘Repented’ To Extremists, Not Allowed To Return Home
An Iraqi soldier in Fallujah stands next to IS group graffiti that has been crossed out. (photo: احمد الربيعي) Kamal al-Ayash : Niqash The Islamic State forced Anbar’s policemen to repent. Now those men want to return home – but the government won’t let them, saying they are deserters who may have sided with extremists. […]
Political celebs, from left to right: Farsat Sofi, Ali Hama Salih, Soran Omar, Sherko Jawdat, Izzat Saber. Maaz Farhan :Niqash A handful of Iraqi Kurdish politicians have become well-known as anti-corruption crusaders and disloyal dissenters. But can these newly-minted political celebrities actually make a difference? Many locals in the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi […]
The Sky’s Limit: No new fossil fuel development.
One year ago in Paris, the world came together to finalize a new agreement to address the climate crisis. Together, countries committed to “[h]olding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would […]
Dam construction in Iraqi Kurdistan: 2 case studies
By our partner Waterkeepers Iraq Surqawshan Dam east of Dukan & Basara Dam in Delezha, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq These two dams are under construction in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. Surqawshan is located down river from the city of Dukan on a tributary to the Lesser Zab. Delezha is located south of the city […]
KRG: Men, Boys Fleeing Fighting Arbitrarily Detained
HRW(Beirut) Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces are arbitrarily detaining men and boys ages 15 and over who are fleeing Mosul and Hawija during the offensive against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in a facility near the Debaga displaced persons camp. The men and boys fleeing from ISIS-held territory into the KRG are […]
Civilians Must be Protected in Mosul, Regardless of their Religion
On 18th October, Geneva Call in partnership with Un Ponte Per, Public Aid Organization and Norwegian People’s Aid, organized a conference in Dohuk on the protection of civilians during the military operations in Mosul. More than 130 representatives from civil society organizations participated in the conference, including the authorities of the Ninawa province, representatives from all religious and ethnic minorities […]
New Report Highlights the Disastrous Impact of Daryan Dam on Iraq
Statement by the Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign 28 October 2016 The Save the Tigris and Iraqi Marshes Campaign have released a report on the impact of the Daryan Dam on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Daryan Dam is a large dam currently under construction on the Sirwan River in Iran. The […]
PAX Iraq Alert IV | October 24th 2016
Mosul: Peacebuilding After ISIS With the offensive on Mosul unfolding, awareness is growing that one day, military groups united in the struggle against ISIS in Iraq will no longer have a common enemy. New conflict dynamics will emerge that need to be addressed urgently. While the need for a longer-term political strategy is now broadly […]
The Regional and Domestic Political Context of the Mosul Offensive
Sada – KIRK H. SOWELL qi security forces began direct operations to liberate Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, from the Islamic State (IS) the morning of October 17. Kurdish peshmerga forces, which controlled much of the area east and north of Mosul before 2014, began taking a series of villages east of the city. […]
House Of The Devil? Religious Extremists Bomb Cafes In Basra Because They Employ Women
Niqash – Ammar al-Saleh It was the second bombing of its kind. And after the incident, those clearing the wreckage in the Coffee Time Café in central Basra found a flyer describing the cafes as “the house of the devil” and threatening all those who worked in the cafes with death and other dreadful retribution. The […]
Military operation on Mosul: the statement of UN OCHA
As the military coalition advances and re-captures territory from Daesh militants, every military action is generating humanitarian needs. UN Secretary Gen. for Humanitarian Affairs O’Brien declared on Sept. 21, 2016: “The shortfall for the Mosul preparations comes in context of underfunding for the Humanitarian Response Plan – the backbone of the Iraq humanitarian operation – […]