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.”
Contents: Greece’s chaos continues as banks are closed; Turkey considers invasion of Syria to prevent a Kurdish state; Jordan makes plans for Syria invasion to protect its northern border
Reports surfaced over the past week of Islamic State (ISIS) terror attacks on the much-abused Kurdish border city of Kobani in Syria, but it now appears ISIS only recaptured parts of the town for a few days. Kurdish forces have reportedly driven ISIS from Kobani for the second time this year. The victory came at horrible cost, as NPR reports ISIS may have killed about 300 civilians over the past 24 hours, many of them slaughtered in a brutal house-to-house massacre.
Contents: Pakistan gives ‘Save the Children’ a partial reprieve; Turkey denies responsibility for ISIS massacre on Kurds in Kobani; European leaders prepare for Greece to default
Kurdish forces have successfully defeated Islamic State terrorists in a late Tuesday battle near the jihadi group’s headquarters in Raqqa, Syria. The Kurdish troops’s latest victory comes on the heels of a successful mission last week that saw its YPG-led forces capture a Turkish border town from ISIS, according to reports.
According to Kurdish officials, eight of the 22 ISIS fighters killed by recent coalition airstrikes in northern Iraq were German nationals. The airstrikes were conducted in the Aski Mosul region, west of the ISIS stronghold in Iraq, the city of Mosul. Kurdish forces were said to be involved in providing intelligence for the air campaign.
Keith Broomfield is the first American to die fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). His father told mourners at the funeral that God led his son to Syria to battle against the sadistic radical Islamic group.
As Turkey’s majority Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) scrambles to build a coalition government in the legislature, the largest minority party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has suggested pairing up with other minority parties to keep the AKP out of the ruling coalition entirely.
Kurdish media outlet Rudaw has released a comprehensive report on the death toll of the Syrian Civil War, which has been ongoing for over four years.
American Keith Broomfield has been killed while fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) as a volunteer with Kurdish units, according to reports on Kurdish social media. The U.S. State Department has confirmed Broomfield’s death and has been in contact with his family.
urkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has submitted his formal resignation in a procedural move necessary for Turkey to begin rebuilding its government after shocking election results that left the nation with no parliamentary ruling party. The majority AK Party to which Davutoğlu belongs must now attempt to form a coalition with at least one other minority party for Turkey’s Parliament to function.
Turkey’s parliamentary elections on Sunday have resulted in a fragmented legislature that has significantly weakened the power of ruling Islamist AK Party, while bringing to power a record number of Kurds, Christians, women, Yazidis, and even members of the Roma minority.
SINJAR, Iraq– Yazidi men and women are taking up arms and joining the Peshmerga to help in defeating Islamic State, as thousands of refugees continue to take shelter on Sinjar Mountain, ten months after President Obama declared the mountain had evaded humanitarian disaster.
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.”
Last February’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks proved a thriller. Behind 28-24 with 26 seconds left, the Seahawks had a first down on the Patriots one-yard line. With one of the best running backs in the league, the Seahawks were expected to run. Surprisingly, Seattle’s coach called for a pass play over the middle; the ball was intercepted and the Seahawks lost.
While the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) has made major inroads in the city of Ramadi and territories increasingly close to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, Kurdish forces backed by American airstrikes have reported major progress in the north of the country, with the Iraqi government reporting that an American airstrike has killed the ISIS governor of Mosul.
Congresswoman and Iraq War veteran Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) argued “the White House needs to change its policy on how it’s dealing with ISIS” on Wednesday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel. Gabbard said, “Well, I think that the
While Americans digest the reality of Iraqi army units fleeing from battle against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) despite months of rhetoric from the Obama administration about their improved performance, the Kurds are still very much in the game.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday to address the Kurdish forces that are willing to fight ISIS, saying that the U.S. needs to arm the Kurds to assist in fighting the terrorist group
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
Kentucky Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul said “I would arm the Kurds, and I would also offer them a homeland” in an interview broadcast on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day.” Rand was asked if the Iraq War
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.
Michael Enright is one of the several hundred Westerners who have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join Kurdish combat units and fight the Islamic State. He’s an unusual volunteer in several respects: he’s 51 years old, the first time he handled a gun was at a shooting range right before he left for Syria, and he is almost certainly the only YPG fighter who has appeared in movies with Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp.
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.
Five men, who reportedly confessed to playing a role in detonating a car bomb on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) outside the U.S. consulate in the capital of northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, have been arrested by Kurdish authorities.
“It is clear from talking with front line Kurdish Peshmerga that Canadian special forces have done more on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant than their coalition partners, including the U.S., and are going to play a critical part in the coming action to expel these fanatical hardliners from Mosul,” writes the Canadian National Post.
The Turkey government lashed out at the Russian government after they acknowledged the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.
Kurdish news agency Rudaw published an interview with American volunteer Jordan Matson over the weekend. Matson, a 28-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Wisconsin, said he had no combat or even overseas deployments with the Army, but he decided to travel to Syria and fight alongside the Kurdish YPG militia “because they stood by the United States for 10 years while my country was in Iraq,” and he wanted to “repay that debt.”
The hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide caused many world leaders to blink, notably President Barack Obama, who abandoned his old campaign promises–and fiery criticism of the Bush administration–by refusing to acknowledge it. Much of this moral cowardice emanates from Western politicians who wish to curry favor with the Turkish government. The Turks have been trying to erase the genocide from history, shortly after they gave up trying to erase the Armenians from history.
The sectarian and factional chaos unleashed in Iraq by the ISIS invasion has neighboring tribes literally at each other’s throats, according to a report by the Associated Press. Some Sunni tribes initially welcomed the Sunni extremists of ISIS when they rolled across the border, thinking they might help change the balance of power in Shiite-dominated Baghdad. After watching ISIS turn northern Iraq into a torture chamber, some members of the al-Lehib tribe changed their minds, and ended up fighting alongside Iraqi military forces and the Kurds.
A dispute between the central Kurdistan government and its Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad has left some Kurdish security troops without pay for months.
(Reuters) – A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) charged into eleven of the 35 Christian communities along the Khabur River in Syria in February targeting Tel Tamer, which at the time was protected by Christian fighters and locals determined to defeat the terrorist group. This week, the Islamic State took another shot at conquering it.
One of the most amazing videos to emerge from the Kurds’ battle against ISIS is this footage, uploaded to Liveleak by a Kurdish activist, depicts an ISIS suicide car bomber getting blown sky-high by what appears to be the premature detonation of his explosive payload.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is in Washington for his first visit in office, and is scheduled for a meeting with President Obama at which he will request a massive increase in military aid against the Islamic State. A senior Iraqi official told Reuters, “We’re talking about billions here… This is a new approach for us because of the scale of the challenge we have ahead. Mosul and Nineveh province and Anbar will cost us a lot.”
The Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front released the estimated 300 Kurds it reportedly kidnapped in northwestern Syria after Kurdish authorities freed three jihadists who had been arrested, according to a Kurdish official and a monitor group.
The Assyrian International News Agency reports on the arrest of the latest Westerner to come home after volunteering for combat duty in Iraq and Syria. The twist in this case is that Matthew Gardiner was a politician of some prominence in Australia — he was the head of the Northern Territory Labor Party before departing for Syria — and he is in trouble for fighting against ISIS, as part of the Kurdish militia.
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.
A new ISIS propaganda video shows three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, evidently captured in the Nineveh province of Iraq, beheaded with knives before a large crowd of onlookers, some of them small children.
For the Kurdish New Year, rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan asked his followers to end a rebellion against Turkey. The conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’s Party (PKK) and Turkey is over three decades long.
