Tag: Mosul

A court in Baghdad, Iraq sentenced dozens of women married to or widowed by members of the Islamic State to death or life in prison in a mass trial this week.

Pope Francis announced Sunday that he will name 14 new cardinals on June 29, including the redoubtable head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Iraqi Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako.

New Year’s Eve was met with celebrations in the streets of Mosul and a fireworks display, the first such revelry since the Islamic State captured the city four years ago.

The damage inflicted on Iraq by the rise and fall of the Islamic State (ISIS) is horrendous, with cities like the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul virtually leveled. Baghdad puts the damage at roughly $100 billion, which is an impressive level of vandalism from a group President Barack Obama famously dismissed as the “junior varsity team” of terrorism. Unfortunately for Iraq, donor nations are not lining up to finance the reconstruction.

Mass was held at Saint Paul’s church in Mosul three years after the Islamic State took control of the city. Video of the Mass was posted online.

Hymns filled a church in Iraq’s second city Mosul on Sunday as worshippers celebrated Christmas for the first time in four years after the end of jihadist rule.

The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported.

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported. The number killed in the 9-month battle to liberate the city from the Islamic State marauders has not been acknowledged by the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi government or the self-styled caliphate.

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

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State on Sunday congratulated the Government of Iraq on its announcement of the liberation of Iraq from ISIS.

“Mosul Eye,” a self-described historian who covertly recorded Islamic State (ISIS) crimes and helped get the information out into the world, has revealed his real identity.

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

HAWIJA, Iraq — Iraqi forces retook one of the Islamic State terror group’s last two enclaves in the country on Thursday, overrunning the longtime insurgent bastion of Hawija after a two-week offensive.

The Islamic State (ISIS) released a previously unheard audio recording Thursday of its “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has been missing for the better part of a year as ISIS loses territory in Iraq and Syria, fueling speculation that he had been killed.

TEL AVIV — The leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah released a statement Wednesday explaining the ceasefire agreement between his organization and the Islamic State, which gave hundreds of IS fighters safe passage to the region of al-Bukamal on the border of Syrian and Iraq with support from the Syrian regime.

Contents: Done with Mosul, Iraqi forces begin operation to eject ISIS from Tal Afar; Turkey warns of sectarian war following battle of Tal Afar; President Trump to announce US strategy in Afghanistan

Contents: Barcelona attackers apparently had multiple coordinated attacks planned; ISIS takes credit for the Barcelona attack; White House officials appear to differ on North Korea military option

TEL AVIV — Amid an intense battle for control of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s so-called Syrian capital, IS has released propaganda photos purporting to show life as normal.

Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country’s north and center, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said.

President Trump has placed a high priority on rebuilding the U.S. military and allowing his commanders to make more calls. So far, in the administration’s first six months, successes have been piling up.

A 16-year-old German girl who ran away from home to join the Islamic State (ISIS) has been captured in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is currently alive in Syria, a top Kurdish counterterrorism official recently told Reuters, denying reports from Russia and a Syrian war monitor group claiming otherwise.

A top Iraqi United Nations official responded boisterously Friday to allegations of human rights abuses by Iraqi forces against Islamic State fighters in Mosul, telling reporters: “This is war.”

The Islamic State group has released photos over its Telegram account purporting to show the deadly attack in northern Sinai last Friday that killed 23 Egyptian soldiers.

In a report published on Tuesday, Amnesty International accused Iraqi government forces and the U.S.-led coalition of “relentless and unlawful attacks” against civilians in the battle to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State. Amnesty declared the battle a “civilian catastrophe.”

The hunt for evidence that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead continued on Wednesday, while Iraqi forces battled ISIS holdouts in the officially liberated city of Mosul.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton talked on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily with Sirius XM host Alex Marlow about victory in Mosul, strategy for a post-Islamic State Middle East, the diplomatic crisis in Qatar, and the North Korean nuclear problem.

TEL AVIV — The defeat of the Islamic State in Mosul has led to an extensive online discussion among Arab media figures and the Iraqi public, with most objecting to the term “victory” and claiming that destruction and sectarian fracturing are the main results of the fight against the Islamic State group.

Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney discussed the story of Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who falsely offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.

Iranian “martyrs” and the Islamic Republic of Iran deserve a share of the credit for their sacrifices to liberate Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), claimed former Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who currently serves as vice president of the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based activist group, claimed on Tuesday it has “confirmed information” that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a victory over “brutality and terrorism” in Mosul on Monday after his forces ended the Islamic State terror group’s rule over the country’s second city.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared in Mosul on Sunday to congratulate his troops for driving the Islamic State from its onetime regional capital. Fighting against the last ISIS holdouts continues in several sectors of the city but, according to the Iraqis, the Battle of Mosul has effectively concluded.

Contents: Iraqi forces are just ‘tens of meters’ away from retaking Mosul from ISIS; Recapturing Mosul from ISIS leaves the future of Iraq in question

Female Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Iraq are using their children as human shields in a last ditch defense of Mosul as the U.S.-led coalition has all but liberated the city.