Tag Archives: Iraq

Saturday, 1 July 2017   Canada will keep troops in Iraq until 2019, at the very minimum, to “advise and assist” in the fight against Daesh. The announcement comes as multiple reports suggest Daesh’s influence in the region is dwindling by the day. Daesh’s top leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was …

Thursday, 8 June 2017 The leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan have announced that they will be holding an independence referendum September 25, part of a plan to fully secede from Iraq and create an independent Kurdish state for the first time in centuries. Kurdish Prime Minister Necherzan Barzani told the Times …

Saturday, 20 May 2017 A policy expert and Pentagon higher-up during the Bush administration has claimed that the United States will need to deploy a long-term force of between 4,000 and 20,000 American soldiers in Iraq after Daesh is defeated to stabilize the country. Former Under Secretary of Defense for …

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 WASHINGTON – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he won assurances of greater U.S. support in fighting Islamic State militants in talks on Monday with President Donald Trump and top advisers, but cautioned that military might alone would not be sufficient. Abadi’s remarks followed his first …

Tuesday, 14 March 2017   AMMAN – A prominent Iraqi Sunni politician on Monday warned Washington the acceleration in a military campaign in western Mosul to drive out Islamic State jihadists was causing a sudden surge in civilian casualties that threatened to undermine the effort to crush the militants. Khamis …

Tuesday, 7 March 2017   BAGHDAD – Elite Iraqi security forces dislodged Islamic State militants from the main government building in Mosul on Tuesday, their last major city stronghold in Iraq, an Iraqi spokesman said. According to Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi, a spokesman for the elite interior ministry unit, …

Wednesday, 1 March 2017 BAGHDAD – U.S.-backed Iraqi army units on Wednesday took control of the last major road out of western Mosul that had been in Islamic State’s hands, a general and residents there said, trapping the militants in a dwindling area within the city. The army’s 9th Armoured …

Thursday, 23 February 2017 SOUTH OF MOSUL: A few hundred civilians have fled their homes in the outskirts of western Mosul, the first reported displacement since a U.S.-backed offensive on the jihadists’ remaining stronghold there began at the weekend. A Reuters correspondent saw about 200 women and children being transported …

Tuesday, 7 February 2017 BAGHDAD – The U.S. embassy in Baghdad said on Monday it has limited the movement of its personnel after receiving “credible threats of possible attacks on hotels frequented by Westerners”. “As a reminder, U.S. citizens should maintain a heightened sense of security awareness and take appropriate …

Tuesday, 24 January 2017 BAGHDAD – The United Nations expressed “deep concern” on Tuesday about 750,000 civilians living in western Mosul, ahead of a U.S.-backed offensive to dislodge Islamic State from this area. Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, is divided into 2 halves by the Tigris river that …