Among those paying close attention to the American retreat from Yemen this week is a provincial governor in Iraq, Eli Lake reports today in Bloomberg View. To understand how the hurried evacuation of U.S. special operations forces from Yemen is connected to Iran’s regional strategy, look no further than Atheel...

• Kindle

Iranian-backed Shiite militias are the “most significant long term threat” to Iraq, according retired Gen. David Petraeus, in an interview published today in The Washington Post. Petraeus, who is back in Iraq for the first time since 2011, was interviewed by the Post’s Beirut correspondent, Liz Sly. In response to...

• Kindle

After freeing the Iraqi town of Amerli, which had been under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Iranian-backed Shiite militias rampaged through the area carrying out reprisal raids against the Sunni population. This was reported in a document prepared by Human Rights Watch (HRW), as reported Wednesday...

• Kindle

Coming on the heels of the Arab Spring, not many believed that the popular protests that erupted in Syria in mid-March 2011 would turn into a prolonged and bloody war that would involve numerous domestic and international players. As the war enters its fifth year with no sign on the horizon for resolution, it...

• Kindle

Photographs and video appearing on social media showing American-trained Iraqi forces committing atrocities were broadcast in a report by ABC News on Wednesday. Iraqi soldiers with insignias on their uniforms belonging to units that have received American arms and training are seen in these pictures and videos holding severed heads,...

• Kindle

Lamenting that the “the administration’s assurances are at odds with its actions,” a staff editorial in The Washington Post today expressed concern that President Barack Obama is prepared to accept increasing Iranian aggression in the Middle East in order to preserve the nuclear deal that the P5+1 nations are negotiating with Iran. The president himself...

• Kindle

Two recent reports in major publications have documented the growing discontent within the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that is beginning to threaten the group’s cohesion, even as it seeks to expand upon the territory it controls. The Washington Post reported on Sunday: Reports of rising tensions between foreign...

• Kindle

Iraqi forces, substantially bolstered by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, launched an offensive last week to capture the Iraqi city of Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Tikrit is a predominantly Sunni city and the hometown of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It is reported that 30,000 fighters are...

• Kindle

Secretary of State John Kerry was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday in an attempt to “to ease Gulf Arab concerns about an emerging deal [with Iran] and discuss ways to calm instability in troubled Yemen and other Mideast nations.” Since the signing of the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) in...

• Kindle

Arabs across the Middle East reacted furiously after militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) destroyed a priceless collection of statues and sculptures dating back hundreds of years in a museum in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, and then posted a video of the destruction online. The Jerusalem...

• Kindle