Tag Archives | Islamic State

Iran Gathers Power, as US Further Sidelined

By Mohammed A. Salih for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. While the United States has invested trillions of dollars and thousands of lives since 2003 to bring Iraq into its orbit, today it is Iran that appears to have achieved that […]

Turn a Light On: Electricity Sector Reform in Iraq

By Luay Al-Khatteeb and Harry Istepanian, of the Brookings Institution. The need to confront and drive back the forces of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS. ISIL) has pushed long-term reform efforts in Iraq far down the list of priorities. Yet pressing economic reforms – such as restructuring and rebuilding the country’s energy sector – increasingly […]

Three Dead in Explosion near Kuwaiti Border

By John Lee. Three Iraqi civilians were reportedly killed on Wednesday when a booby-trapped truck exploded near the Kuwaiti border in Iraq. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA quoted a local Iraqi official as saying that the explosion happened at a garage near the main road about 12 km (7.5 miles) north of the Safwan border […]

Militia Attacks Destroy Villages, Displace Thousands

Militias, volunteer fighters, and Iraqi security forces engaged in deliberate destruction of civilian property after these forces, following US and Iraqi air strikes, forced the retreat of Islamic State fighters (also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL) from the town of Amerli and surrounding areas in early September 2014, Human Rights Watch said in a report […]

Iran Sends Additional Arms to Iraq

By Patrick Schmidt. Iran already holds a growing position of influence in Iraq and this position has grown once again. The Iranian government has dispatched a number of advanced missile and rocket systems to Iraq to aid the in the fight against the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL). The systems seem to be Fajr-5 rockets […]

IS Again Deploys Chemical Weapons

By Patrick Schmidt. Kurdish security officials report that the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) has once again used chemical weapons against its forces. The IS used chlorine gas twice against the Peshmerga outside of the city of Tikrit. The militants have used the gas before against the Peshmerga. The last reported gas attacks by the […]

Japan Continues to Assist KRG

Minister Falah Mustafa, Head of KRG Department of Foreign Relations today received Mr. Kentaro Sonoura, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan and his accompanying delegation to discuss latest developments and bilateral ties. Minister Mustafa briefed the Vice-Minister on the military, humanitarian, and economic challenges facing the Kurdistan Region as well as the political process […]

UN Worried about Anbar Refugees

The United Nations Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, Lise Grande, along with Neill Wright, the country’s UN refugee agency (UNHCR) representative, today visited Iraqi families recently displaced from Al Baghdadi district in the western province of Anbar. “The situation facing these families is very worrying. They have been under siege for days and […]