Category: Iraq

At least 47 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in two bomb attacks on Monday in eastern Iraq, security and medical sources said, underscoring a continued threat from Islamic State militants in a province previously considered freed of them. In January Iraqi officials declared victory over the radical jihadist group in Diyala province, which borders Iran, after security forces and Shi’ite paramilitaries drove them out of towns and villages there, but the militants have remained active. At least 40 people were killed and 72 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in a marketplace north of the city of Baquba, the sources said. A separate blast to the east of the city killed a further seven people and wounded 25. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but they came less than a month after a bombing claimed by Islamic State in the nearby town […]

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PKK spokesperson Zagros Hiwa stands in a cemetery of hundreds of PKK fighters in the Qandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan on Nov. 6, 2014. (DANIEL W. SMITH/Iraq Oil Report) The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) does not intend to make further attacks on the pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.That was the message delivered by Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the PKK, who spoke to Iraq Oil Report in a series of phone and email interviews over the past week."I can assure everyone that HPG is not hostile against anything related to interests of our people in southern Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan], and such attacks will not repeat," Hiwa said.Th… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Continue reading the main story Slide Show Slide Show|8 Photos U.S. Air Power and Kurdish Fighters Team Up to Inflict Losses on ISIS U.S. Air Power and Kurdish Fighters Team Up to Inflict Losses on ISIS CreditMauricio Lima for The New York Times HASAKA, Syria — Green drapes were drawn against the sun, cloaking the room where members of a Syrian Kurdish militia huddled around walkie-talkies, assiduously taking down GPS coordinates. Talal Raman, a 36-year-old Kurdish fighter, worked on a Samsung tablet, annotating a Google Earth map marked with the positions of the deserted apartment buildings and crumbling villas from where his colleagues were battling Islamic State fighters south of this northern Syrian town. He pinpointed in yellow the positions where his men were hunkered behind a wall, and highlighted in red the coordinates of a building next to a mosque where Islamic State fighters had taken cover. “Our […]

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KRG President Massud Barzani in traditional Kurdish clothes welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Erbil on July 24, 2015. (CAROLYN KASTER/Pool/Getty Images) The Kurdistan region is just nine days away from its most severe political crisis since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s, as rival political parties remain at loggerheads over Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massud Barzani’s tenure and the power of his position.Supporters say the region needs Barzani to remain in charge to face both a fiscal and security crisis. Opponents see an opportunity to challenge the dominance of Barzani and his party.The rules for such poli… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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The final welded section of the KRG’s Khurmala – Feyshkabour pipeline lies by trenching immediately south of oil storage tanks at DNO International’s pumping station, 3km from the Turkey border. August 17, 2013. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report) Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reported oil sales of 492,273 barrels per day (bpd) in July – steeply increasing its independent exports despite more than four days of pipeline outages.As exports rise, the KRG is also promising to make long-delayed, partial payments to international oil companies (IOCs), though the amount and timing of the prospective payments remains unclear."From September 2015 onwards, the KRG will on a monthly basis allocate a portion of the r… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Photo The ruins of an old building served as a platform for children to jump into the Tigris River in Baghdad and cool off last month. Credit Hadi Mizban/Associated Press BAGHDAD — At noon, the light bouncing off the hot concrete seems to bleach everything, like an overexposed photograph. Standing for more than a minute in the sun sets off a full-body sweat. Even after sunset, as the temperature coasts down from 122 degrees Fahrenheit, or 50 degrees Celsius, to perhaps 108 , Baghdad’s heat can seem like a living thing. It clings to every contour of the body, squeezing tight. Iraq has been hot even by its own standards. Taking all conditions into account, the Weather Channel calculated that the peak day in Baghdad this summer felt like 159 degrees. It was a data point most likely of little use to outsiders unable to imagine even 122 degrees, […]

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An Iraqi oil worker at the al-Basra Oil Terminal waits for a tanker to dock on Feb. 21, 2010. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Iraq maintained near-record export levels in July due to rising output from Basra, which helped offset disruptions to northern oil sales caused by political disputes and pipeline outages.The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) reported an average 3.105 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports in July (a total of 96.245 million barrels), which is down from 3.187 million bpd in June and 3.145 million bpd in May, though more than in April.Almost all of those exports flowed through Basra… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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An Iraqi oil worker at the al-Basra Oil Terminal waits for a tanker to dock on Feb. 21, 2010. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Iraq maintained near-record export levels in July due to rising output from Basra, which helped offset disruptions to northern oil sales caused by political disputes and pipeline outages.The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) reported an average 3.105 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports in July (a total of 96.245 million barrels), which is down from 3.187 million bpd in June and 3.145 million bpd in May, though more than in April.Almost all of those exports flowed through Basra… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Kurdish forces draw on oil revenue for support. Semiautonomous Kurdish government extends financial hand to oil companies working in northern oil fields. File Photo by Mohammed al Jumaily/UPI ERBIL, Iraq, Aug. 3 (UPI) — The Kurdish government in Iraq said Monday it would allocate some of its revenue to international oil companies on a monthly basis to help cover their expenses. British energy company Gulf Keystone Petroleum, one of the key players in the Kurdish oil sector, in early 2015 suspended crude oil exports through Turkey and directed sales to the local market briefly because of a lack of payment from the Kurdish government. The Kurdish north hosts some of the larger oil fields in Iraq. The Ministry of Natural Resources for the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said that, while crude oil exports are its principle source of revenue, energy companies operating in the region face difficulties moving forward […]

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