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The Kurdistan Regional Government has hosted a special session for the KRG Minister of Interior and Mayor of Shingal to brief diplomats and representatives of UN agencies and INGOs based in Erbil on the needs of the city.

At the outset of the meeting, Minister Falah Mustafa, Head of KRG Foreign Relations called for a moment of silence to show respect for the victims of the atrocities committed against the Yezidi Kurds by the ISIS terrorists.

Minister Falah Mustafa, Head of KRG Foreign Relations, thanked diplomats and representatives of UN agencies and INGOs for attending the meeting. Minister Mustafa thanked the US-led Coalition for the support provided to Peshmerga forces in the liberation of Shingal. He stated that “Liberation of Shingal was very important to the people of Kurdistan and the civilized world.

The ISIS terrorists have committed grave crimes in Syria and Iraq but the most barbaric and heinous crimes were committed in Shingal. ISIS committed another Anfal against Kurds in Shingal.” The Minister called for urgent support from the members of international community in the reconstruction process of the city of Shingal, as eighty percent of the city has been completely destroyed.

KRG Minister of Interior and Acting Minister of Peshmerga, Mr. Karim Sinjari highlighted the role of Peshmerga forces and the contributions of the Counter-ISIS Coalition in the fight against ISIS. Minister Sinjari requeted the international community to allocate specific financial assistance to the KRG from the funds offered to the government of Iraq, to help KRG document the crimes committed against Yezidis, and to support KRG’s efforts to gain international recognition of the Yezidi genocide.

Momentum is on the side of the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said today, noting significant gains in Iraq and Syria.

The secretary spoke in a joint news conference at the Pentagon with Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Forces on the ground in Iraq have retaken Ramadi and are making progress in Anbar, while the coalition is making "operationally significant strides" in Syria, he said.

"Because of our strategy and our determination to accelerate our campaign, momentum is now on our side and not on ISIL's," Carter said.

Gains Include Reclaiming Shadadi

The secretary highlighted how coalition forces recently reclaimed Shadadi, a town in northeastern Syria, that he described as a "critical node" for ISIL training, logistics and its oil enterprise. "As our partners take control of Shadadi, I believe we will learn a great deal more about ISIL's criminal networks, its criminal enterprise and what it does to sustain them," Carter said.

Shadadi is important in efforts to sever the "last major artery" between the Syrian city of Raqqa -- ISIL’s putative headquarters -- and the Iraqi city of Mosul, an "operation critical to dissecting ISIL's parent tumor into two parts," he said.

Accelerated Efforts Include Cyber

The campaign to defeat ISIL is being accelerated across Syria and Iraq, the defense secretary said.

Coalition members are bombing ISIL's banks and oil wells, he said, and cyber tools are being used to disrupt ISIL's ability to operate and communicate over the virtual battlefield.

The cyber efforts are being used, particularly in Syria, Carter said, to disrupt ISIL's command and control operations, cause the terrorists to lose confidence in their networks and to interrupt their ability to control the population and the economy.

Cyber is an "important new capability," he said. "This is something that's new in this war, not something you would've seen back in the Gulf War. It is an important use of our Cyber Command -- and the reason that Cyber Command was established in the first place."

ISIL is one of five challenges that must be addressed as part of DoD's mission to defend the nation, Carter told reporters.

The other challenges are Russian aggression in Europe, a rising China that is "behaving aggressively," and the threats of North Korea and Iran in their respective regions, he said.

(Source: US Dept of Defense)

As the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria brings its capabilities to the fight, joint interoperability continues to degrade the terrorist organization, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said today.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who also serves as Combined Forces Air Component commander for Operation Inherent Resolve, briefed Pentagon reporters on progress in the coalition’s counter-ISIL air operations via teleconference from an air operations center in Al Udeid, Qatar.

The interoperability among the coalition nations is built upon “years of combined training and multilateral exercises [that have] been key to our continued success in the air campaign,” Brown emphasized.

“There is no doubt coalition air power has and continues to dramatically degrade [ISIL’s] ability to fight and conduct operations,” he added.

While persistent air coverage continually exploits ISIL’s weaknesses, “we are more effective today than ever before,” the general said. “We're conducting the most precise air campaign in history, and we're able to attrit [ISIL] and its capabilities any time and anywhere.”

Targeting Areas for Defeat

Targeting ISIL logistics, command and control and weapons manufacturing are some of the areas in which the coalition has had increased success, he said.

By John Lee.

Reuters reports that Russia is ready to sell Sukhoi Superjet civil airliners to Iraq.

On a trade mission to Baghdad, accompanied by nearly 100 government and business officials, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia could provide Sukhoi Superjet airliners for Iraq's civil aviation, adding that Moscow would continue providing Iraq with military equipment.

Russian trade with Iraq last year was worth nearly $2 billion, mostly made up of Russian exports, according to TASS.

(Source: Reuters)

As Iraqi security forces make progress in the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Canada’s vow this week to expand its contributions in the fight is a welcomed commitment, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said on Wednesday.

Warren noted in his weekly counter-ISIL operational update via videoconference from Baghdad that the Canadian government announced on Feb. 8th that it plans to triple the size of its train, advise and assist mission. A move that is welcomed, the colonel added.

“Canada will increase its compliment of military personnel to approximately 830,” he said. “They will deploy troops at various headquarters to further support planning, targeting and intelligence. As part of these efforts, Canada will deploy medical personnel to train Iraqi medics and to provide medical support to coalition members.”

Warren added, “Canada will also provide equipment such as small arms, ammunition and optics to assist in the training of Iraqi security forces.”

The Canadians “have been a trusted and valuable partner of this coalition since the beginning of the campaign, whether it's providing aerial refueling and surveillance aircraft or trainers to advise and assist, they've shown great resolve and continue to enable this fight,” the colonel said.

Gains Continue, Despite Threats

As clearance operations continue in Iraqi-controlled Ramadi, “untold thousands of [improvised explosive devices]” remain in the city, Warren said, and threats persist from enemy harassing attacks and acts of terror.

By Amberin Zaman for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

When the Iraqi Kurds come to Washington, it is often to ask for guns to fight the Islamic State (IS). Now they are pleading for cash, warning that their campaign against the jihadis is threatened by an economic “tsunami” that has left their quasi-independent state teetering on the brink of collapse.

“Is this only our fight or yours, too?” asked Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani, after briefing top US officials in Washington last week.

The Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga warriors and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units are critical allies in the fight against IS, wresting back huge chunks of territories including the town of Sinjar in Iraq and the Tishreen dam in Syria. But Hussein cautioned that IS remains “a big threat” and could “regroup at any time.” Unless the Kurds’ allies step in with financial aid, the Kurds' capacity to fend off the jihadists will wane, he said. “You cannot win the fight when you can’t survive economically,” Hussein told Al-Monitor in an interview.

That message was driven home in back-to-back meetings at the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council and also on Capitol Hill, where the Kurds met with Sens. John McCain and Dianne Feinstein, among others. “We haven’t been going around asking people to pull out their checkbooks,” said Bayan Sami Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) representative in Washington.

“But people don’t appreciate enough that this is an incessant fight,” she said in an interview with Al-Monitor. “Never mind the cost of running a war, our peshmerga don’t even have winter gear. The purpose of our mission here is to help our friends understand that this is not sustainable, that we need nothing less than a Marshall plan,” Rahman added.

By John Lee.

Iraq's Etihad Food Industries will reportedly start production at its new $100-million edible oils refinery in Babylon by the end of the year.

Commercial Director Haidar Alnoumany told Reuters that the company started building the infrastructure two months ago, and when in production it will source crude (edible) oil from many origins like Argentina, Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

The refinery will process corn oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and palm oil, and aims to cover the needs of Iraq's trade ministry (around 456,000 tonnes a year) and the domestic private market.

It will have a capacity of 3,000 tonnes a day with a refined oil storage capacity of 90,000 tonnes.

The plant is close to the company's sugar refining plant, which started production last year and ramped up faster than expected, reducing the country's dependence on white sugar imports.

(Source: Reuters)

(Cooking oil image via Shutterstock)

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Between Black Gold, Bleak Prospects: Visiting The Iraqi Shanty Town Between Two Oil Fields

NIQASH visits Wasit's Oil Town. But this is no wealthy area for oil billionaires. This shanty town between two oil fields is full of displaced people in shacks, with no sanitation or easily accessible drinking water.

It's a random neighbourhood, with barely any of the necessities one would normally find in a housing district. But somehow the Hay al-Naft neighbourhood, also known as “Oil Town”, located between the Ahdab oil field, run by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and Russia's Gazprom-run field at Badra, has become a gathering place for those with nowhere else to go.

More than 50,000 residents live here and most of them were displaced by the previous or present sectarian conflict. Locals say the shanty town was named Oil Town either because of its proximity to oil fields or, some suggest, because it is thought there may be oil underneath the town.

A woman living there who wished to be known only as Um Ali, said she had come here in 2006 after she was forced out of her own neighbourhood by sectarian conflicts.

“We see oil around us in all directions,” the woman in her 60s, her face dark and creased, told NIQASH. “But we don't benefit from any of the oil. We only inhale the smoke and fumes and fear the diseases they bring. I am really afraid for the future of my four sons here. I wish we could go elsewhere where we could live in dignity.”

The houses here, roofed with wooden panels that don't hold out the rain or wind, are separated by streets full of sewage, dirty water and rubbish. It's a kind of a shanty town where every dwelling was built randomly and without any planning, another resident who wished to remain anonymous, told NIQASH.

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

A Pipeline In The Pipeline: Can Exporting Natural Gas Save Iraqi Kurdistan?

Beginning 2016 Iraqi Kurdistan will begin to build a new natural gas pipeline to Turkey. But analysts say if they use the same policies they do for oil, the pipeline will make things worse, not better.

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