Pentagon Sends Attack Helicopters
By John Lee. The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the US has sent Apache attack helicopters (pictured) to Iraq. The Hill reports that officials would not say how many of the armed helicopters have been sent to the country, stating only that they will be based in Baghdad and could assist with evacuations of American […]
Iraqi Legislators Fail to Agree
By Laith Hammoudi. This article was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net, and it is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News The Iraqi parliament broke up in disarray on July […]
The New Iraqi Parliament Opens
The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. So the new Iraqi parliament met today after having promised Iraqi voters, the Shiite […]
Video: Iran "Not Sending Troops to Iraq"
From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian gives a press conference in Moscow after talks on the situation in Iraq where jihadists seized vast territories.
Video: Iraq Prepares for the Su-25
From CNN. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. CNN's Phil Black gives us a look around the Su-25 warplane, the model that Iraq has bought from Russia.
Weekly Security Update, 24 - 30 June 2014
By Anne-Laure Barbosa at Constellis Consulting As ISIS consolidates its positions and increases its territorial control across the north and west of Iraq, its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the creation of an ‘Islamic Caliphate’ on 29 June in areas overrun by insurgents. While largely symbolic, this announcement represents another blow to the central government, which […]
Kurds to Keep Kirkuk Oil Fields "Until Referendum"
By John Lee. Bloomberg reports that Iraqi Kurdistan will keep Peshmerga troops in the nearby oil hub of Kirkuk until people there can vote on whether to join the Kurdish enclave. Safeen Dizayee (pictured), spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said: “As a people, we have the right to be independent, but the issue […]
Saudi Pledges $500m in Aid
By John Lee. An official source at the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has ordered $500 million of humanitarian aid for Iraqi people affected by the recent tragic events, including displaced people, regardless of their religious, doctrinal or ethnic affiliations. The United Nations Secretary General […]
SI Retail Opens First Auchan Store in Erbil
On Wednesday, June 25th 2014, the first hypermarket under the French Auchan banner was opened in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This 6,000 sqm store is part of a 106-shop mall, located near the center or Erbil [Hewlêr]. The opening of this store is based on a franchise agreement between the Auchan Group and SI Retail, one […]
New Parliamentary Session Abandoned
By John Lee. Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of Iraq's new parliament on Tuesday after Shi'ites failed to name a prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki, according to Reuters. With Shi'ites failing to name a prime minister, Sunnis and Kurds refused to return to the chamber after a recess. The Shi'ite […]
KRG Oil & Gas Council discusses Fuel Shortages
Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani yesterday chaired a meeting which included several ministers, the KRG Oil and Gas Council, and Kurdistan’s governors to discuss measures to tackle fuel shortages in the Region. The meeting was designed to identify solutions to overcome the current fuel shortage, considering the current situation in Kurdistan and throughout Iraq and […]
Record Casualties in June
According to casualty figures released today by UNAMI, a total of at least 2,417 Iraqis were killed and another 2,287 were injured in acts of terrorism and violence in June. (Data do not take into account casualties of the current IA operation in Anbar, for which we report at the bottom the figures received by […]