Kurds

America celebrates its independence on the Fourth of July, while captive people around the world hope they might one day celebrate their own.

ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s president has told journalists he still intends to block Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Russia-backed Ukrainian separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic,” warned supporters of Kurdish independence not to rely on support from America or the West because “they won’t respect their promises,” unlike, he claimed, Russia.

Documents from the Swedish state department reveal that Kurdish authorities wanted Sweden to take back Islamic State women from prison camps as they deemed them too dangerous to remain in Syria.

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.

(AFP) – French president Emmanuel Macron was to pay a visit Sunday to the Islamic State group’s former Iraqi stronghold Mosul, a day after vowing to keep troops in the country.

A mob attacked a Kurdish man preaching beside an Israeli flag in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, with one person arrested in connection to the attack.

As expected, the regime of dictator Bashar Assad declared him the winner of Syria’s sham “election” on Thursday with over 95 percent of the vote.

Syria is holding its “presidential election” on Wednesday, a farcical exercise denounced by international observers but touted by incumbent “President” Bashar Assad as a glorious exercise of popular will.

Islamic State terrorists in Iraq have regrouped and are “now a force” once again threatening to gain control of significant territories in the country, a commander of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga warned on Wednesday.

Kurdish Gen. Sirwan Barzani warned in an April 6 interview updated Monday that the Islamic State is “coming back with a vengeance” in Iraq, and while ISIS is currently focused on guerrilla fighting and terrorist attacks on civilians, it aspires to “make a powerful comeback” and once again control territory as a caliphate.

The top government prosecutor in Turkey submitted an indictment against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish opposition coalition, on Wednesday demanding the state disband the party. The HDP rose to prominence in 2015, winning a sizable number of seats

An NGO boss is one of thirty people under investigation by Italian prosecutors for helping Kurdish illegal migrants into Italy from Bosnia. 

Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the United States in remarks Monday to stop “siding with terrorists” for Washington’s continued support of Syrian Kurdish groups instrumental to defeating the Islamic State.

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.

Members of the Kakai, a minority Kurdish group in Iraq’s northeastern town of Kirkuk, are fleeing their villages because they fear attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, local officials told Voice of America (VOA) on Wednesday.

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a security threat in areas of northern Iraq disputed between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region, a leader of Kurdistan’s Peshmerga military said on Tuesday.

Two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has announced that she is creating a dramatic TV series about the all-women Kurdish militia that successfully took on the Islamic State in the northern Syrian town of Kobani in 2014.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has never made a secret of his ambition to become a historic regional leader. His nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire long ago became a source of concern for observers who think he might seriously attempt to bring it back. His detractors mock him as “Sultan Erdogan,” but he might not find that name insulting. Erdogan flexed his military muscle in several recent conflicts. He might be warming up for something bigger, or he may have already overtaxed Turkey’s military strength.

Iraq announced a travel ban on the governor of Kirkuk, Rakan al-Jabouri — appointed to restore Baghdad-led leadership and expel Kurdish leadership in the aftermath of the 2017 Kurdish independence referendum — on Tuesday amid charges of criminally misappropriating public funds.

Two unnamed U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday that several American soldiers were injured during an “interaction” with Russian troops in northern Syria this week.

A Turkish drone strike in northeastern Iraq’s Kurdistan Region killed three Kurds on Tuesday, “two members of Iraq’s border guard and the driver of the vehicle they were in,” according to the Iraqi military.

Iranian security forces rushed to suppress a new wave of demonstrations across Iran on Thursday and Friday. The regime is clearly nervous about a possible repeat of the 2019 protests, which featured some of the same grievances and defiant slogans.

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 militant separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) launched an attack against a Turkish outpost near the Iranian border on Tuesday night, killing at least one Turkish soldier and wounding another.

Eight villages near the border of Iraq’s Kurdistan region have been emptied as residents flee a Turkish military offensive called “Operation Claw-Tiger” directed at positions allegedly held by the PKK, the Kurdish separatist party that has long been engaged in hostilities with the Turkish government.

A car carrying the PM to Downing Street collided with a support vehicle Wednesday afternoon after a protester jumped in front of the convoy.

Non-Muslims in Iran suffer persecution at the hands of the government, including imprisonment, torture, and execution, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom.

Kurdish governing authorities in Afrin, northeast Syria, condemned the Turkish government on Wednesday for enabling jihadist groups they say are responsible for killing over 40 people in a bomb blast in the city the day before.

Islamic State militants on Monday night staged their second prison riot in 24 hours at the holding facility in Hasakah, a city in northeastern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces. Kurdish officials said they narrowly avoided a “catastrophe” and warned they are having increasing difficulty controlling the ISIS prison population. 

Police in Greece arrested members of a Turkish terrorist organisation after a tunnel containing a cache of military-grade weapons was discovered under Athens.

Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Allawi withdrew his candidacy on Sunday, roughly a month after he was nominated for the post.

French and Dutch authorities have arrested 23 people in connection with a people-smuggling network that is said to have helped around 10,000 Kurds illegally enter the UK.

Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr arranged a sizable anti-American demonstration in Baghdad on Friday, putting his followers on the streets alongside ongoing protests against corruption and the excessive political influence of Iran.

Shops in a Kurdish region of northern Iraq have been selling shoes with a Christian cross embossed on the sole, allowing wearers to “trample the cross,” according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).

A report from the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) on Sunday charged Iranian officials with killing one person who was detained during last month’s protests and torturing several others.

German prosecutors have filed terrorism charges against a German woman who allegedly joined the Islamic State group in Syria.

President Emmanuel Macron of France accused the government of Turkey of working with “ISIS proxies” in its campaigns in Syria during remarks alongside President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The Turkish National Security Council issued a statement on Tuesday that “Operation Peace Spring,” the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, will continue despite cease-fire agreements brokered with the United States and Russia.