Turkish forces operating in Syria reportedly shelled two villages on Sunday, coming perilously close to positions held by Russian troops. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is currently in a state of highly elevated tensions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused French President Emmanuel Macron of “defaming Turkey” in a speech this week in which he reportedly defended a free media in Turkey and urged Ankara to take in more migrants.
CONTENTS: In a major escalation, Iran’s missiles strike Kurdish targets in northern Iraq; Iran’s missile attack displays the rising power of the IRGC in Iran.
Residents in Kirkuk, Iraq, are protesting that they have run “out of water,” joining a chorus of protests in cities like Basra over Baghdad’s inability to provide basic government services, the Kurdish outlet Rudaw reported on Wednesday.
The Iraqi government has removed 47 Kurdish officials from their posts in Kirkuk, beginning with the regional governor, since reasserting control over the disputed region in October 2017. The use of “Kurdish phrases” was banned on Tuesday by the state-run North Gas Company, which operates in Kirkuk.
Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, expected to be named the victor when Friday’s final Iraqi election results are published, is reportedly seeking to ally his Sairoon coalition (On the move) with several allied blocs in Iraq to form a government.
Contents: Thousands of Kurds in violent protests against Kurdistan government in northern Iraq; Iraq’s Baghdad government splits over role of Iran-backed Shia militias
Iraqi troops and Iran-backed Shiite militia forces launched a new offensive against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq on Thursday. The Kurds reported taking artillery fire from the advancing forces.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq announced on Wednesday that it would be open to “freezing” the results of the September referendum asking Kurds whether they would support the creation of a sovereign KRG state.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq announced it had signed a deal with the Russian state-owned oil corporation Rosneft that would allow the company to begin developing oil blocks worth a potential $400 million to the Kurds.
The freshly-appointed interim governor of Kirkuk, Rakan Ali al-Jabouri, held a press conference on his first full day in office Tuesday, at which Kurdish police chief Omar Khatab was asked to speak. Khatab was also rather forcefully asked not to speak in Kurdish on three different occasions, even when responding to questions asked in that language by a Kurdish reporter.
The Trump administration on Monday refused to take sides in a brewing civil war in Iraq between its Kurdish allies in the north and the Iraqi government in Baghdad, despite desperate calls from Kurdish leaders to intervene.
Contents: Kurds flee Kirkuk after Iraq army defeats them in complete rout; Devastating defeat to Iraq in Kirkuk exposes major splits between Kurdish factions
Contents: Mattis and Tillerson work to prevent Iraq vs Kurd military confrontation in Kirkuk; ISIS fighters permitted to leave Raqqa, Syria, with human shields; Syria demands ‘immediately’ pullout of Turkey’s forces from Idlib province
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has deployed 6,000 Peshmerga troops to the disputed Kirkuk region in Iraq, as Shiite militias have reportedly approached the city under the auspices of the government in Baghdad, which has rejected the KRG’s independence referendum.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Twitter this week that Baghdad would seek full control of all airports, land crossings, and oil revenues under the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by Friday, threatening to seize them if Erbil does not comply with the order.
Over 90 percent of the three million voters in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq voted to secede from Iraq and establish an independent Kurdistan Monday, in an election widely heralded as free and fair.
Some activists claim northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region is removing members of the Yazidi minority group for joining the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or publicly opposing the upcoming independence referendum.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet is reporting that supporters of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are organizing a political party to challenge the pro-Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose leadership is largely in prison.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the upcoming referendum on Kurdish independence on Iraq “wrong” and “a threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq,” despite his country’s friendly ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a statement Friday rejecting the call by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani for a national independence referendum, declaring that the Kurdish people cannot “decide its fate unilaterally.”
The Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a predominantly Shiite paramilitary group backed by Iran, has pushed out the U.S.-designated terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from areas south of the Yazidi-majority Sinjar region in northern Iraq.
The prime minister of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq described his recent visit to Russia as “an opportunity to expand the relationship” with the Kremlin “in all fields, including energy, economic and political sectors.”
The autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will likely become an independent state after the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is defeated in the country, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told lawmakers.
Turkey has expressed its condolences to the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) after airstrikes led to the deaths of several Peshmerga soldiers but vowed to continue operations in the region following attacks on Syrian Kurdish and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in both countries this week.
This story originally appeared at the Clarion Project: By Ryan Mauro The Syriac Military Council, a Christian militia in Syria opposed to the Assad regime, condemned Turkey for bombing its U.S.-backed Kurdish allies who are fighting ISIS. The Christians accused
Six armed Iraqi Kurdish parties have reportedly joined forces in advance of expected protests and clashes on Iranian soil on March 21, the Kurdish New Year known as Newroz.
A group affiliated with a predominantly Shiite paramilitary force backed by Iran and legally operating as a component of the Iraqi military has reportedly bombed Kurdish Peshmerga positions in northern Iraq’s Sinjar region, Rudaw reports.
The United States is expected to build its biggest consulate building in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq that has been pushing for independence.
Fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization of mostly Iran-allied Shiite militias, have established a presence in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region with the ultimate purpose of erecting a base there, Rudaw has learned from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group the United States and other NATO allies designated a terrorist organization, claims its fighters will only leave Sinjar, Iraq, once it goes back to the control of the Yazidis, a minority group that calls the area its home.
Various officials from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq have reportedly congratulated Republican Donald Trump for his U.S. presidential election victory, noting that they hope he will boost American support for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its Peshmerga troops.
Members of the Yazidi minority community in northern Iraq, targeted for genocide and sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), feel abandoned by humanitarian groups and governments that have shifted their attention to the growing number of displaced persons escaping the Iraqi city of Mosul, reports Rudaw.
Authorities from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq have reportedly forced about 250 displaced Sunni Arab families to leave Kirkuk after Sunni sleeper cells were accused of helping Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists carry out an attack in the Kurdish-controlled city.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is expected to visit Turkey Friday, a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a scathing critique of the ongoing efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to push the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) out of Iraq, demanding a bigger role for Turkish troops.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American troops, including some who are embedded with advancing forces, are “in harm’s way” as they collaborate with troops from Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and Iran-linked Shiite militias in the fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists are “dead set” on using chemical weapons and are likely to try to use them in an attack as U.S.-backed Iraqi troops advance on Mosul, which is considered the terrorist group’s last major stronghold in Iraq, warned the Pentagon.
The highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. confirmed that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used a potentially deadly “sulfur-mustard blister agent” to target a base in northern Iraq that houses American troops. This marks the first recorded chemical attack on the United States since the jihadist group conquered swaths of Iraq in 2014.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has decided to assume control over all the schools in its jurisdiction linked to the religious movement led by imam Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Erdogan blames for the failed coup attempt against him.
Fighting between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and rebels affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) has reportedly erupted near the border with Iraq.
