By John Lee. Iraq's Ambassador to the US Lukman Faily has given an interview with the journal Foreign Policy speaking of his long term friendship with Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi. We learn that Amb. Faily and Abadi were students together in England in the 1980s and both campaigned to raise awareness of the crimes of the regime […]
By Patrick M. Schmidt. In statements made to the Financial Times, Turkish officials have encouraged the United States to allow American businesses to import Kurdish oil. They argued that the United States should support the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) economically as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) has been able to directly […]
By John Lee. It's something many academics and Maliki observers have long feared: that if cornered, Maliki would use loyalist Iraqi forces, in particular the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, to hold onto power. Instead, The Wall Street Journal have reported that Maliki has pledged to pursue his fight to retain the top spot through the courts, […]
By Patrick Schmidt. Defence secretary Chuck Hagel has announced that additional military advisors are being deployed to Iraq. On Tuesday, an additional 130 American military advisers arrived in the country. The staff are tasked with accessing the ongoing humanitarian crisis taking place in the north of the country. This announcement comes almost a week after […]
In an interview with Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times, US President Barack Obama has said that a residual U.S. troop presence in Iraq would never have been needed had the Shiite majority not “squandered an opportunity” to share power with Sunnis and Kurds. “Had the Shia majority seized the opportunity to reach […]
From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. US President Barack Obama is warning that the fight against the Islamic State group may take time. Speaking before US fighter jets carried out a new round of air strikes, Obama blamed Iraqi […]
By Patrick Schmidt. Following recent gains of Kurdish security forces, in addition to a recent setback in Jalawla in northern Diyala, American officials have hinted that various government agencies have begun supplying Kurdistan with weapons to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). To date, America has mostly focused its attention on […]
U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Iraq on Monday, successfully conducting airstrikes on four ISIL checkpoints and multiple ISIL vehicles near Sinjar Mountain in defense of internally displaced Yazidi civilians in the area. At approximately 1:10 p.m. EDT, U.S. fighter aircraft struck and destroyed an ISIL checkpoint southwest of Sinjar Mountain. At […]
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. The United States has finally decided that Iraq's security and humanitarian situations require immediate military intervention. US President Barack Obama's Aug. 7 speech consolidated this decision and spelled out the US mission on two levels: […]
Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby on Airstrikes in Iraq At approximately 6:45 a.m. EDT, the U.S. military conducted a targeted airstrike against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists. Two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil. ISIL was using this artillery to […]
By Patrick M Schmidt. Almost three-dozen different non-governmental organizations have pushed for action on the part of the American government to respond to the ongoing refugee crisis in the Kurdistan region. It is estimated that the violence that erupted this weekend alone displaced at least 30,000 people as Kurdish and militant forces clashed. It is […]
From CNN. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The U.S. is considering air strikes in Iraq in response to a militant surge in northern areas. CNN's Jim Sciutto reports:
