By Denise Natali for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. US-led efforts to counter the Islamic State (IS) with Kurdish peshmerga partners is having a backlash on Sunni Arab communities. Relying on Iraqi Kurds to act as coalition boots on the ground may help eliminate […]
By Shukur Khilkhal for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Is Samarra the key to reducing sectarian tension in Iraq? The Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions in the city of Samarra are back on the front burner. Sunni politicians, clerics and a number of […]
By Omar al-Jaffal for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Basma’s phone is always in her pocket. She used to throw it around the house, but things have changed. She is waiting for a phone call from her father, who lives in […]
The humanitarian situation of Iraqis recently displaced to the southern governorates of Najaf, Kerbala and Babel is reaching critical levels, according to an assessment by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). WFP assists 50,000 displaced families in Basrah, Thi Qar, Qadissiya, Missan, Wassit, Muthanna, Najaf, Kerbala, and Babel. “Despite the dangers and challenges posed […]
By Fazel Hawramy for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. For Ibtisam, a 15-year-old Yazidi girl, the six months after the Islamic State (IS) attacked her hometown could not have been crueler. Her mother and three younger sisters were taken from the village of Tel […]
By Mushreq Abbas for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. A wide range of armed forces beholden to different authorities outside the defense and interior ministries are spread across Iraq. This reality was not spawned by the occupation of Mosul by the Islamic State (IS) […]
By John Lee. Several airlines have suspended flights to Baghdad on Tuesday after bullets hit an airplane as it was landing at Baghdad International Airport. Reuters reports that two passengers were slightly injured when three or four bullets hit the body of a flydubai plane carrying 154 passengers on Monday evening. It was not known […]
From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Last summer, tens of thousands of Yazidis faced searing heat as they fled a murderous jihadist onslaught in northern Iraq, but many survivors are now shivering in the snow:
Subsequent to the roundtable discussions on social cohesion amongst Iraq's social and political actors that were held in Baghdad on 26 and 27 November 2014 and following-up on their recommendations, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr.Nickolay Mladenov, on Sunday chaired in Kerbala the first of a series of roundtable […]
From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. A massage belt, a PlayStation controller, a gold ring -- it sounds like a gift list, but the items the Islamic State group left in Iraq are rigged with explosives to kill.
From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Kurdish fighters have reportedly cut-off a major supply line for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northwestern Iraq. The Kurdish Peshmerga say they've seized an area near the Mosul […]
By Mushreq Abbas for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Just like any Middle Eastern leader, Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Ibrahim al-Badri) relies upon his relatives to guarantee his own security. However, ever since his spectacular appearance in the Mosul mosque in […]
