DELPHI, Greece — The Deputy Prime Minister of Kurdistan’s Regional Government in Iraq told Breitbart News exclusively that he and the Kurds look at President Donald Trump’s return to the White House as a historic opportunity for deeper business and economic ties between the United States and Kurdistan, as well Iraq as a whole.
Iraqi officials stated they are finalizing an effort to remove nearly all U.S. troops following the collapse of the Islamic State.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be preparing for another military incursion into the border regions of Syria and Iraq to fight the PKK, a violent Kurdish separatist group seen by Erdogan’s government as the primary threat to Turkey’s security.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition of fighters in Syria allied with the United States, announced on Monday that an attack, apparently by Iran-backed militias from Iraq, on an American base killed at least six of their fighters.
Iraq condemned Iran’s missile attack on the Kurdistan region as a violation of sovereignty, but Kurdish leaders want Baghdad to do more.
Iran’s IRGC on Monday vowed to continue missile campaigns “until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran fired missiles and drones at alleged “spy centers” in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella organization of Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in Iraq, claimed responsibility on Monday for attacking Israel’s Red Sea port city of Eilat.
The death toll from the magnitude 7.5 earthquakes in southeastern Turkey continued to climb on Monday morning, as rescuers scrambled to search for the injured, missing, and dead beneath the rubble of fallen buildings. The latest count as of press time put the death toll in Turkey and Syria at over 2,300 and rising.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran on Sunday formally took responsibility for the missile attack on Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. The IRGC is the theocratically-controlled wing of the Iranian military and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
The Iraqi Embassy in Minsk announced on Thursday it will organize an evacuation flight for Iraqi citizens “wishing to return” home from Belarus amid a migration crisis.
Troops from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq stationed at the airport in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), were attacked on Saturday by drones packed with explosives. One of the drones was able to penetrate the airport’s security perimeter before exploding, but no significant damage or casualties were reported.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the theocracy-controlled wing of the Iranian military and a designated terrorist organization, launched rocket and drone attacks across the border into Iraq on Thursday, targeting Kurdish militant groups Iran claims are a threat to its security.
Turkey summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohammed Farazmand in Ankara on Sunday to complain about Iran’s criticism of Turkish military operations in Iraq. The complaint concerned demands by another Iranian ambassador, Iraj Masjedi in Baghdad, for Turkey to suspend operations and remove all of its forces from Iraqi territory.
An Iran-backed militant group in Iraq called Saraya Awlia al-Dam, or “Guardians of Blood Brigades,” quickly took credit for Monday’s rocket attack on the Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan region.
Islamic State terrorists executed a “surprise attack” on Iraqi police in Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic region in the nation’s north, late on Thursday, killing an officer and injuring at least three others according to the Kurdish outlet Rudaw.
The Iraqi Armed Forces said on Tuesday they had unearthed a mass grave of 50 people “executed” by the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk province.
A major hospital in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, said it will only accept Chinese coronavirus patients amid a skyrocketing number of new cases in the region, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq announced a “total lockdown” of its capital province, Erbil, on Sunday, in an attempt to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.
Drone strikes of unconfirmed origin killed at least six people in Sulaimani province, northern Iraq, on Thursday, including multiple children. The strike, reportedly targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), occurred near what the Kurdish outlet Rudaw described as a “village resort” popular with families.
The government of Iraq announced the shutdown of 20 refugee and internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in western Anbar province this weekend, stating that people no longer need them as they are returning home.
Members of the few remaining Christian communities of northern Iraq following attempted genocide by the Islamic State told the Kurdish outlet Rudaw this weekend that they are “terrified” as Turkey continues to bomb alleged Kurdish terrorist targets near them.
Protesters in Iraq, coming up on half a year of demonstrating against the corruption and incompetence of their government, were not reassured by Baghdad’s handling of the coronavirus. Furious that their disorganized and thoroughly looted government lacks the money and human resources to mount an effective defense, the protesters are setting up their own screening and treatment facilities, distributing information on how to prevent the spread of the disease, and giving out medical masks.
Officials in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Wednesday they were not surprised to find themselves caught in the crossfire as Iran targeted bases in Iraq for an ultimately ineffective missile attack to avenge the death of terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani.
The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani, told an audience Tuesday that the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was responsible for Turkish violence against Kurds in Syria, encouraging Kurds to “criticize ourselves” as much as outsiders.
Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria is a threat to the sensitive Christian communities rebuilding in a country that lost the vast majority of its Christian population, Aid to the Church in Need Director of Outreach Edward Clancy told Breitbart News.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the semi-autonomous Kurdish provincial leadership in Iraq, expressed solidarity with the Syrian Kurds on Thursday, denounced Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria, and criticized the United States for failing to prevent the Turkish operation.
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 security troops rekindled their relationship with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces this week as Iraq faces an Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) resurgence.
The U.S.-based representative for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq implored the Trump administration to help the region recover from the crisis it is facing after the military defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in an event on Tuesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed on Thursday that Ankara is preparing for a new military operation in Iraq, backed by the government in Baghdad, against the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.
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
Iran-backed Shia paramilitary forces operating in northern Iraq have been accused by a Kurdish parliamentarian of engaging in “flagrant injustice” toward Christians in the region which until earlier this year was in the grip of ISIS terrorists.
The Trump administration’s opposition to the independence referendum approved by northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has prompted the Kurds to consider “revising” its mutually beneficial relationship with the United States, according to the region’s former president.
Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani announced this weekend that he would not seek an extension of his term after November, stepping down amid an invasion of his territory by the Iraqi army and the Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Christians living in the Nineveh Plains, who only just returned home after the defeat of the Islamic State, are once again on the move, forced to flee as Kurdish fighters clash with Iraqi government forces north of Mosul.
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.
A senior leader within the Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah has described the invasion of Kurdish-held Kirkuk, Iraq, as “a victory over the U.S. and Israel,” referring to the attack as “our victory” specifically.
The Yazidi minority in Iraq finds itself in an uncomfortable position as the Kurds consider acting on their successful independence referendum, while Iraqi troops move against Kurdish positions to make such a bid for independence impossible.
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.
