Adel, 15, hasn’t seen his parents for the past nine months, but that was the price to pay to escape the brutal rule of Islamic State group jihadists in his northern Iraqi hometown. “I miss my family, nine months is too long,” said the teenager, among hundreds of youngsters separated from their parents because of … Read more
Mosul was the largest city in the “caliphate” proclaimed by the Islamic State group and its loss is a huge blow to the jihadists’ statehood experiment — but not a fatal one. The northern Iraqi city was where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in July 2014, announcing himself to … Read more
Dilan Lurr and his sister Lezan often ask themselves where would they be now if their parents had not left Iraq when they were children. Would they be fighting against Islamic State like their cousins back in Kirkuk? What is almost certain they would not be showing their first collection at Paris fashion week sandwiched … Read more
The United States on Monday slapped financial sanctions on two suspected Islamic State militants accused of manufacturing chemical weapons, the Treasury Department announced. It was the first time the Treasury Department had imposed sanctions on an IS member accused of involvement in chemical weapons, the department said. The sanctioned men included senior IS leader Attallah … Read more
Three years after the Islamic State group routed them in Mosul, Iraqi forces are now on the cusp of retaking the city from the jihadists and avenging a historic debacle. The fall of Mosul was the worst defeat that Iraqi forces suffered in the war with IS, and regaining it would cap a major turnaround … Read more
The United States on Thursday warned that a decision by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to hold an independence referendum could distract from the fight against the Islamic State group. The Kurdistan region announced on Wednesday that it would vote on September 25 on whether to split from the rest of Iraq and form an independent … Read more
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region will hold a referendum on statehood in September, its presidency said Wednesday, despite opposition to independence from Baghdad. “September 25, 2017 was designated as the day for holding the referendum” on independence, the presidency said in a statement. Iraqi Kurdistan is made up of three provinces that are run by an … Read more
Australian military advisers have reportedly been hit by an Islamic State gas attack in Iraq. On Sunday, the advisers were working in a unit in Mosul when ISIS forces launched the chemical attack and are believed to have used a type of mustard gas. No Australians were injured in the attack, but six soldiers suffered … Read more
Provincial councillors in disputed, oil-rich Kirkuk province voted Tuesday to fly the Kurdish regional flag over government buildings, a move likely to increase tensions with Baghdad. Kirkuk is at the centre of a long-running dispute over northern territory between Kurdish authorities, who want to incorporate the land into their autonomous region, and the federal government … Read more
Iraqi Kurdish forces deployed at a state-run oil company Thursday, temporarily halting pumping through a pipeline that is one of the country’s two main avenues for crude exports, officials said. The move highlights two fault lines that may increasingly come to the fore as Iraq’s war against jihadists winds down: the dispute between Baghdad and … Read more
The Islamic State group carried out an attack on an Iraqi border guard position near Jordan on Friday, killing at least 15 guards, officials said. “Daesh launched an attack with a suicide car bomb and gunmen on the 2nd border guard regiment near Trebil,” an officer in the border guard told AFP, using an Arabic … Read more
Women have revealed the horrors they endured at the hands of ISIS sex slaves – despite being Sunni Muslims just like their captors. Abuses against Yazidi women have been well documented under the terror group’s brutal rein in parts of Iraq and Syria. But according to Human Rights Watch there is now evidence that Sunni … Read more
About a month ago, photographer Eugenio Grosso traveled a 70-mile stretch in northern Iraq, from the city of Kirkuk to Sulaymaniyah in the country’s Kurdish region. He had only one purpose: to photograph the gas stations he saw along the way. “When I first noticed that there were so many petrol stations concentrated in the … Read more
ga fighter decided to invest in an armored car, but he had little clue the vehicle would end up saving the lives of dozens of people. After shopping around, he settled on a bulletproof BMW, and paid $10,000 for the early 1990s model at a car auction. “My friends were very happy when I bought … Read more
Ferocity of Kirkuk attack points to tough fight for Mosul Smoke rises as Kurdish forces take position at a site of an attack by Islamic State militants in At least 100 fighters sneaked into Kirkuk in the early hours of Friday with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, suicide vests and a message: “Islamic State has … Read more
Many have fled the area round Mosul as government and Kurdish forces close in. Forces of so-called Islamic State have launched an attack in Iraq on a town in western Anbar province in an apparent attempt to divert attention from the government’s offensive on Mosul. The mayor of Rutba described the Islamic State (IS) assault … Read more
Turkey has insisted that its forces cannot remain idle during the fight to drive so-called Islamic State militants from the Iraqi city of Mosul. PM Binali Yildirim said it might be necessary to take action because Iraq and the US had not kept their promises. He said both countries had allowed Shia militias and Kurdish … Read more
Fighters from the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group have attacked government buildings in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least six police officers and 16 civilians. Twelve IS jihadists were also killed in the dawn attack. Hours later, witnesses said gunfire was still being heard and militants were walking openly through the streets. Separately, … Read more
ISIS militants have captured up to 3,000 people displaced from their homes trying to flee conflict zones in northern Iraq, the United Nations said Friday, reportedly killing 12 of them. The UN refugee agency said it had received reports that ISIS rounded up the thousands of internally displaced people Thursday from villages as they tried … Read more