445 articles
The U.S. has enacted new sanctions against Iran for censorship and alleged human rights violations. Iran has a long history of human rights abuses and harsh action against political dissidents — particularly activists seeking governmental change within the country. Many female activists and protesters seeking equal rights have also been persecuted under the laws of […]
Imprisoned pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas has accused The Turkish media of not covering his campaign. He claims that they are only coving pro-government interests. Demiritas is running a campaign from prison, a bold move — to say the least. Selahattin was arrested in November 2016 along with 11 other HDP […]
This week the Iraqi Security Forces launched a major anti-terror operation in the city of Mosul, located in northern Iraq. The operation was largely successful with the ISF capturing a total of 22 Islamic State militants. They also recovered large caches of explosives used to construct improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Since the collapse of the […]
Walking and shooting is an incredibly simple task that is often made unnecessarily complicated by instructors and the general shooting community. For instructional purposes, this article will be targeting beginners — but you paper-slayers out there might learn a thing or two as well. There are a great deal of practical uses for shooting while […]
Last week, members of the Islamic State launched an attack on a power grid linked to the cities of Tikrit and Hawija, both cities are located just outside of Kirkuk. Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity stated that there was a total loss of power due to the attack, something not entirely uncommon to the region but […]
Yesterday an attempted prison break in a Duhok — in a prison that contained convicted terrorists — led to seven inmates being killed and several others injured. The deaths and injuries occurred when the would-be escapees set fire to their cell block. Zirka prison houses around 1,500 convicted terrorists, most of which were members of the […]
The 2019 U.S. defense budget was approved on Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, $290 million of which will be allocated to Kurdistan’s Peshmerga military forces — under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The U.S. budget for Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) is $560 out of $850 million, the rest will be allocated to […]
After a long and heated debate between various political parties throughout Kurdistan, the election commission has decided they will not be using the electronic voting machines for during the next election; which is in September. All votes will be counted manually again due to widespread criticism and accusations of fraudulent voting practices. The electoral body of […]
Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi and a delegation of Kurdish politicians met in Baghdad this week to discuss future plans for the new government with Iraqi parliamentary representatives. A group of Kurdistan Diplomatic Party (KDP) officials lead by Secretary General Fazil Mirani met Ambassador Masjedi to ensure that the formation of the newly elected government will not […]
The Manbij Military Council (MMC) announced that they have captured several “sleeper cells” composed of pro-Turkish militants this week. The captured men were supposedly part of the Turkish military’s Operation Euphrates Shield and were attempting to “destabilize” the region. The MMC’s commander, Mohammed Abu Adel told local media that, “The Euphrates Shield forces wanted to […]
A lot of speculation, hearsay, and high hopes have been put towards the reintegration of Kurdish Peshmerga military forces into providing security in Kirkuk alongside Iraqi forces. Now Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will be make good on his promise during elections, that a solution would be found regarding Kirkuk and the desire to see an […]
Iraqi Kurdistan’s infrastructure has suffered drastically over the last few years. Everything from the Islamic State, construction failure, and natural disasters have caused considerable amounts of damage. Overall, everything has put a strain on the economy and that in turn has made upkeep very difficult as well. A particularly bad example of this (or good […]