Turkey Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu visited Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani to discuss Turkey’s plan with the United States to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). The talks took place in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG/YPJ–or People’s Protection Units–issued a statement on Monday condemning Turkish airstrikes on strategic Kurdish posts. The Turkish government announced a new campaign, accompanied by the United States, against the Islamic State in Syria, but the Kurds and anti-Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) Syrian militant claim they are the real targets of the campaign.
The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, has appeared to take the side of the Turkish government regarding recently launched airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), calling the U.S.-designated terrorist group “arrogant” and praising Turkey for taking a “positive” role in attempting peace talks with the PKK.
Iraq’s Assyrian Christian population is seeking to reclaim territory they have lost to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) since they overtook the region last summer and to create an autonomous region for themselves–in a free Kurdistan.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official told a panel at the Middle East Institute that Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is seeking to break away from Baghdad in an “amicable way,” adding that the independence process is ongoing.
Reports surfaced from Iraqi media on Tuesday that 45 Islamic State (ISIS/IS/ISIL) jihadis were killed after ingesting an iftar meal commemorating the conclusion of Ramadan. It remains unclear whether the jihadis, who were breaking their Ramadan fast in Mosul, Iraq, died of food poisoning or intentional poisoning, Haaretz reports.
Turkmen groups in western Syria, close to the border with Turkey, are working to create an independent militia to combat both the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and any advances made by the Kurdish YPG forces, which have been the only group to enjoy success in keeping ISIS from sweeping through Syria’s border towns.
As a variety of Kurdish forces continue containing the Islamic State’s advance in Syria and Iraq, leaders are becoming increasingly vocal about the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, with some sources close to the ground telling Fox News that Kurds are dedicated to the formation of a new state “whether the U.S. likes it or not.”
Yazidi artist Ammar Salim, 31, uses his talent to show the world what the Yazidis suffer under the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh). His paintings tell the story of the Yazidi massacres. “I want to connect all that happened, to explain about the Yazidi genocide,” he explained to Rudaw.
Syrian Kurdish fighters scored a major victory against the Islamic State when they captured the border town of Tal Abyad on June 15. But now Syria and Turkey face appeals from ISIS fighters who want to receive amnesty in their home countries.
Kurdish pop star Helly Luv tells interviewers of her new single, “Revolution,” that she refused to imitate or fabricate any of the suffering in the war against the Islamic State in Syria. Wanting to depict the realities of the battlefield for the Peshmerga and ISIS refugees, the golden-heel-clad artist filmed her music video less than two miles from the front lines with ISIS.
NORTHERN IRAQ– The battle against ISIS in Iraq has come to a “standstill” as the United States and other Western nations provide insufficient weapons support for Kurdistan, while providing the Iraqi army with advanced weaponry that has fallen into the hands of ISIS.
A communist organization in Spain has been filtering Spanish citizens into Iraq and Syria to fight with the communist Kurdish PKK against the Islamic State. The fighters, most serving as snipers protecting Kurdish and Yazidi areas, assert that they have a responsibility as communists to “further the advancement of this region’s proletariat.”
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has published an article in the latest issue of its magazine, Dabiq, by jihadi bride Umm Summayyah, estimating that First Lady Michelle Obama is only worth $40 on the terrorist group’s slave market. Summayyah also defends the rape of thousands of Yazidi females.
REUTERS– Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes are pressing an attack on ISIS in northeastern Syria that has killed at least 170 members of the jihadi group this week, a Kurdish official and an activist group said Wednesday. The official said Kurdish YPG fighters
The persecution by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) of Iraq’s minority Yazidi population has pushed thousands to find any means to escape the grips of the barbaric terrorist group, coughing up hefty sums of money to secure their freedom.
Sheikh Shamo, a Kurdish Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament, reported this week to Kurdish outlet Rudaw that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) has forced many abducted Yazidi children to be soldiers for the terrorist group.
A Syrian news outlet is reporting that Kobani, the Turkish/Syrian Kurdish border town that became the focal point of the war against the Islamic State before the terror group was ousted in January, is once again being targeted for capture now that the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga have evacuated.
The White House, Muqtada al-Sadr, a powerful Iraqi Shiite Cleric, and the Iraqi government have come out against a proposed U.S defense bill that authorizes sending arms and funds directly to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters in Iraq.
Turkish news outlet Hurriyet Daily News travelled to Iraq to interview Yazidi women and girls the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) had kidnapped and raped. These females managed to escape or be released after relatives paid a ransom. Now they reside in refugee camps in northern Iraq.
A suicide car bomb struck near the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, northern Iraq on Friday afternoon killing three people and wounding eight others. One of the wounded included an American woman, reported Rudaw News. The incident occurred at 5:40pm in the district of Ankawa, which is a predominately Christian area and a popular place for Westerners.
A clash between the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkish armed forces (TSK) left five militants dead and wounded four Turkish soldiers. The fight occurred despite the PKK leader’s call for a ceasefire in March. Now the fights threaten to end fragile peace talks while pro-Kurdish groups accuse Turkey of staging the attacks.
Kurdish and Iraqi forces drove out the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants from Jalawla, which is 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, on November 23, 2014. While it should be a joyous occasion, residents cannot enter because a fight over the town is brewing between the victors.
Two members of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament fought early in the week in the auditorium over President Massoud Barzani. The action forced Speaker Tariq Jawhar to investigate the fistfight. “The argument occurred between the two deputies from (Barzani’s) Kurdistan Democratic
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has released a new video showing members of the terrorist group killing a Peshmerga soldier execution-style.
