Turkey is banning relatives of those killed or wounded in Saturday’s twin bombing of a peace protest in Ankara from assembling and protesting the government, citing “sensitivities at this time.”
Last week I arrived back home to Iraqi Kurdistan, exhausted but proud of a small but real triumph over the Islamic State. Three women and two toddlers came back with me—five human beings just rescued from enslavement by ISIL.
Residents in Şırnak, Turkey, are expressing outrage after a video and images surfaced on the Internet, showing Turkish soldiers dragging a Kurdish man through their streets.
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been largely cut off from the rest of the world since the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) captured it in June 2014. But there are some citizens who have managed to reveal the terrible conditions they suffer under the vicious radical Islamic group.
Kurdish forces are attempting to cut off the route often taken by foreigners wishing to link up with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) terror group and join its Middle East jihad.
Hundreds of attacks by Turkish nationalist mobs on Kurdish-friendly parties, Kurdish businesses, and even knowing Kurdish individuals in the wake of the nation’s struggle against the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terror group threaten the peaceful coexistence of Turks and Kurds, leaders warn.
During a week in which the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet has fought off three violent mobs at two of its headquarters, a rival columnist supportive of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has threatened the life of Hurriyet writer Ahmet Hakan, noting that the AKP has “been merciful today and you are still alive,” but that can always change.
Small Christian militias continue to fight for Iraq–men determined to stop the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) from destroying their homeland and heritage. The Assyrian fighters are one of many groups profiled in the past year who are willing to stand up to the radical Islamic group.
Turkish authorities arrested Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink for the second time this year, allegedly to shield her from the dangers of covering Kurdish-Turkish tensions. Geerdink specializes in Kurdish relations, human rights, and women’s rights.
A Kurdish official claimed that 25 Kurdish prisoners escaped from an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) prison in Mosul.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have forced out thousands of Yazidis as they established their caliphate in Iraq and Syria. The majority fled to Turkey, and the younger Yazidis now wish to stay in Europe.
ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State insurgents in a cluster of villages in Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk on Wednesday, bent on securing territory they have gained in the course of rolling back the jihadists since last
A recent report by the Iraqi parliament blamed former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for losing the vital city of Mosul to the Islamic State, going so far as to recommend criminal charges against Maliki and his colleagues.
16 Islamic State jihadis ended up killing each other outside of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday as a result of infighting between rival factions of the terror group, according to a report from the Kurdish news network Rudaw.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared an autonomous region in the Dersim province on Tuesday. The PKK is a Marxist-Lenin group and noted as a terrorist organization by the U.S., EU, and NATO.
Two days after American F-16s arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, authorities are confirming that manned American airstrikes are being conducted from Turkey into Syria, the first time since the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) that such activity has occurred. The arrival of American troops to Syrian skies follows confusion regarding whether Turkey and the United States have agreed to create a “buffer zone” free of jihadis and Kurds in Syria.
Iraqi Peshmerga officials told Kurdish media outlet Rudaw that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is using chemical weapons against Peshmerga soldiers in Makhmur, Iraq.
The Turkish government’s anti-terrorism campaign, initially advertised as a campaign to destroy the Islamic State terrorist group, has killed hundreds of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and left the terror group significantly diminished, as its imprisoned leader calls for peace talks.
Members of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey recently traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect Turkey’s airstrike against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). At the same time, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed doubt Turkey has attacked the PKK camps.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) executed at least 19 women who refused to have sex with terrorists belonging to the group, multiple reports assert.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PPK) terrorist group’s leadership has called upon the United States to intervene and encourage the Turkish government to engage in peace talks with the Kurdish group, in the hopes of ending the air campaign Turkey is waging against them while claiming to be fighting the Islamic State (ISIS).
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government is striving to contain what has grown into a significant drug abuse problem among its population, pushing the limits of both law enforcement and medical care facilities in accommodating criminals and those who need help fighting their addictions.
The bodies of 13 Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) soldiers will finally be allowed to return to their families after 10 days held up at the Syrian/Turkish border, Turkish media reports. Despite having died fighting the Islamic State, their alliance with the YPG stains them with ties to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)– Turkey’s number one enemy.
Relatives of fallen Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters in Turkey say the Turkish government is denying permission for the bodies to return to Turkish soil to be buried. A group of 12 bodies, including that of a German national fighting in Syria, have been waiting in a refrigerated truck on the Syrian border for more than one week for permission to enter Turkey.
Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, is calling for the Marxist terror group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to leave Iraq completely, as civilians have died in Turkish airstrikes targeting the group. Barzani also condemned Turkish forces for killing civilians in his territory.
