CNN reported today that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) overran Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian city, causing the exodus of thousands more Iraqi Christians from their homes. Qaraqosh is a historic Assyrian town of 50,000 people, approximately 20 miles southeast of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, where ISIS also...
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After a series of victories in northern Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), an al-Qaeda offshoot, the United States on Friday launched a limited military strike against the Islamist group. ISIS’ victories threaten thousands of Iraqi minorities, prompting President Barack Obama to take action to protect the...
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Earlier this week, Reuters reported on a surprising consequence of Syria’s civil war: trade between Europe and the Arab world is increasingly passing through Israel. A Romanian truck driver, Ismail Hamad, explained that after 30 years of driving through Syria, he no longer does so because of “[t]oo much problems,...
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The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Kurds are expanding and fortifying their semi-autonomous area in northern Iraq. According to the AP, the Kurds are creating barriers as both a defensive measure and as “a bid for greater autonomy or outright independence.” The emerging frontier of sand berms, trenches and roadblocks...
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Nine Islamist rebel groups on Monday rejected an announcement made the day before by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) that the Al Qaeda offshoot was reforming a caliphate extending the group’s influence across the region: “The terms of the caliphate have not been realized at present,...
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Reports surfaced over the weekend that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) had announced it had reformed the caliphate – an Islamic state stretching across the region – headed by ISIS chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi: In the statement—released in Arabic, English, German, French, and Russian—ISIS claimed...
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Reports surfaced Wednesday morning of Syrian airstrikes against targets in western Iraq that killed scores of people and left more than 100 injured, reigniting concerns that spillover from the Syrian conflict is serving as a destabilizing force in the region. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf on Wednesday slammed Damascus for...
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Iraq’s ambassador to Iran Mohammad Madjid al-Sheikh on Tuesday told reporters that Tehran has “played an important role in supporting Iraq politically” but that Baghdad has not asked the Islamic republic for assistance in combating extremist Sunni fighters. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has made steady gains...
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Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad Monday to meet with Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki, with the intent of urging the Iraqi leader to accelerate the formation of an inclusive, unified government amid reports of further Sunni extremist gains and unrest across the country. The visit comes following reports...
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Jordan is facing threats on three fronts: from Syria, ISIS in Iraq and potentially from Hamas in the West Bank, former head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Branch Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Israel Ziv told a news conference of The Israel Project on June 24. The threat to Jordan from ISIS,...
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