Tag Archives: iraq

On Friday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, urged his nation’s political leaders to overcome their differences and form a government that could see off the advances of militants who have swept through large swathes of the country. Sistani,, who is a revered cleric within the Shi’ite majority community and whose stature dwarfs that of all politicians in …

The Syrian opposition late on Thursday sacked the military command of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) over allegations of corruption, several hours after US President Barack Obama asked US lawmakers for $500 million in aid for moderate rebels. In his statement, opposition chief Ahmad Tohme said that the opposition had “decided to disband the Supreme Military Council and refer …

The Institute for Economics and Peace has released its Global Peace Index report for the year 2014, and several North African and Middle Eastern nations performed poorly owing to the violence in the region. Countries were graded peace scores based on 22 different indicators, with each of the different indicators weighted according to importance. According to the report, global peace …

US President Barack Obama has asked his nation’s Congress to approve $500 million in aid to equip and train “moderate” Syrian rebel forces. The funds would go a long way in helping Syrians defend themselves against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, the White House said. It also said that the aid could also help counter militants like the Islamic State in …

The United States on Thursday said that it is opposed to a Syrian role in resolving the turmoil in Iraq after the Syrian government had carried out air strikes against the militants. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is facing insurgents from Syria who are sweeping across his nation, told the BBC that the Syrian air force had, earlier in …

The United Nations on Tuesday said that over a thousand people have been killed so far this month in the militant sweep through western and northern Iraq, and that more than 75% of them civilians. At least 1,075 people have been killed, with 658 others injured by the violence in Iraq from June 5th to June 22nd, Rupert Colville, spokesman …

By Robert Naiman At this writing, President Obama has neither the legal nor the political mandate to conduct airstrikes in Iraq or Syria. On Thursday night, 182 Members of the House voted yes on Representative Barbara Lee’s amendment defunding the use of the 2002 Iraq Authorization for the Use Military Force. Among those 182 Members were 151 Democrats – 81 …

The regime has abetted Sunni extremists to influence Western public opinion In the week since Al-Qaeda spinoff the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) brought Iraq back into international headlines by seizing around a third of the country in a matter of hours, there has understandably been a great deal of soul-searching and hair-pulling as to how a group …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that his government will do everything in its power to protect revered Shi’ite Muslim shrines in Iraq from Sunni militant fighters combating the Baghdad government. “Dear Karbala, Dear Najaf, Dear Kadhimiyah and Dear Samarra, we warn the great powers and their lackeys and the terrorists, the great Iranian people will do everything to …

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that extremists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) would have reached Beirut if it were not for his party’s decision to send fighters to Syria. During a meeting of al-Mahdi Scouts Association on Sunday, he said, “Had we not interfered in Syria at the appropriate moment, ISIL would …