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. Dildar Namiq, 24, is eagerly running up and down a flight of stairs in a two-story office, trying to complete paperwork to join Iraqi Kurdistan's armed forces, known as the […]
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, yesterday received a United States congressional delegation, led by Congressman Rob Wittman. In the meeting, which was also attended by Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister, Qubad Talabani, Mr. Wittman commended the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga Forces for having been able to repulse the attacks of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, […]
Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Kurz, received Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, Department of Foreign Relations, Minister Falah Mustafa and his accompanying delegation on Friday. During the meeting, which was attended by KRG Representative to Austria, Both sides spoke in detail of the latest military developments in the fight against ISIS, the […]
By Robert Tollast. The following opinions are the authors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Iraq Business News. This article examines Iraq’s localised and national level attempts to foster pan sectarian cooperation against ISIL, looked at in the context of previous counterinsurgency campaigns fought by Britain and the US. “Our fighting against […]
By Simon Kent. NATO have announced that they are in talks with Iraqi officials to revive a coordinated training mission for Iraqi officers. Previously, NATO was in Iraq during the war against the ISIS predecessor, ISI, the Islamic State of Iraq. At that time, NATO was generally involved with training the Iraqi army in Jordan and […]
By Simon Kent. Belgium has announced plans to open a consulate in Erbil, capital of the semi autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. In a sign of deepening ties between the KRG and Belgium, the central EU nation also announced they would provide hospital treatment for injured Peshmerga soldiers. The Peshmerga are the armed forces of […]
From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. US soldiers with combat experience from the occupation of Iraq are joining Kurdish units holding off armed group. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from southern Kirkuk:
By John Lee. BasNews reports that Kurdistan's Ministry of Peshmerga and the Italian Consulate in Erbil are planning to cooperate on the construction of a hospital for wounded Peshmerga in Erbil. Peshmerga Minister Mustafa Said Qadir met with the Italian Consul Carmelo Ficarra and two Italian companies on Sunday to discuss the project, and a […]
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 […]
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 […]
From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iraq's first Christian-only brigade of regular forces graduated Thursday to help retake the community's towns and villages from the Islamic State group. The new brigade will answer to the government of the Kurdish region.
National Overview Allied forces are now understood to be in preparations for a direct assault on Tikrit city, following a large scale retreat of ISIS fighters from towns and villages protecting main routes. In total some 20,000 troops, alongside PMU militias and Sunni tribesmen have advanced on the town, closing off routes to the south […]
