BY DEXTER FILKINS The New Yorker president Obama won the White House in part by promising to end the war in Iraq, and since then he placed his faith in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to help him do so. It was Maliki who would hold together the state that the Americans had helped build. Obama had […]
Challengers Emerge to Replace Divisive Maliki
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ROD NORDLAND The New York Times BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials said Thursday that political leaders had started intensive jockeying to replace Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and create a government that would span the country’s deepening sectarian and ethnic divisions, spurred by what they called encouraging meetings with American officials […]
Iraq’s problems are not timeless. The U.S. is responsible.
Boston Review Eight years ago, Nir Rosen made a startling prediction in the pages of Boston Review: Sunnis will be cleansed from Baghdad. And the Shias will go to war against Sunnis. The Kurds, having waited for this opportunity, will secede. Today, with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) taking over cities in […]
Inside Baghdad After Isis Attack: Guns, Rumours and Rising Prices
Niqash | Kholoud Ramzi | In Baghdad, embassies are shutting down, the Internet has been turned off, there’s a checkpoint on every corner and there are more weapons carried openly on the streets than ever. Food prices are rising, militias roam the streets and all anybody can talk about is whether the extremists will attack. […]
Militants lay siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic militants laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery Wednesday, threatening a facility key to the country’s domestic supplies as part of their ongoing lightning offensive, a top security official said. The attack comes militants have seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq — and as the specter […]
Interview by the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative (ICSSI), with an Iraqi human rights defender (“QC”) from Mosul – the 18th of June 2014 What is the situation now in the city of Mosul? QC: In terms of the security situation, there is no fighting or bombing. The roads are open, but there is a […]
With Mosul, areas of Salahuddin and Kirkuk out of Iraqi government control, the situation for civilians there and in Iraq as a whole is increasingly dangerous. Moment by moment, the media/news agencies are busy gathering news of what has happened and continues to happen in northern Iraq, and with each report, anxiety grows. The Iraqi […]
IN EXTREMISTS’ IRAQ RISE, AMERICA’S LEGACY
BY DEXTER FILKINS Newyorker First Falluja, then Mosul, and now the oil-refinery town of Bayji. The rapid advance of Al Qaeda-inspired militants across the Sunni heartland of northern and western Iraq has been stunning and relentless—and utterly predictable. Here’s a forecast: the bad news is just beginning. The capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, by […]
How did Extremists Take Over one of Iraq’s Biggest Cities in Just Five Days?
inside Mosul: how did extremists take over one of iraq’s biggest cities in just five days? Niqash Mosul From the first suicide bombings to an attack on the next province, it has only taken Sunni Muslim extremists five days to gain control of one of Iraq’s biggest cities and its surrounds. How did it happen? […]
Militants Overrun Iraqi Provincial Government Headquarters, Other Areas in City of Mosul!
By: SAMEER N. YACOUB and ADAM SCHRECK – Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police and army forces abandoned their posts in the northern city of Mosul after militants overran the provincial government headquarters and other key buildings, dealing a serious blow to Baghdad’s efforts to control a widening insurgency in the country, a provincial official […]
Transitional Justice Fails in Iraq
Ali Mamouri – Almonitor Transitional justice is an important and decisive phase for societies liberated from a long era of dictatorial or sectarian rule. When transitional justice is not achieved, society will suffer violent chain reactions among the different social groups. In many cases, the relationship between the executioner and the victim is reversed, and the acts […]
Humanitarian Crisis Spreads to Northern Iraq amid Critical Funding Shortages
NCCI, Tuesday, 10 June 2014 For months, NGOs and UN agencies operating in different parts of Iraq have been calling upon the international community to refocus attention towards the overwhelming scale of the humanitarian needs that exist inside the country. The Anbar crisis has for more than six months posed an almost unmanageable burden upon […]