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KRG to tender three new refineries

The Lanaz oil refinery on the Gwer road west or Erbil, March 31, 2015 (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is hoping to attract private bids for three new refineries with a total of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity, in an attempt to bridge the gap between uneven domestic fuel supply and rising demand.In tandem with these efforts, government officials hope to reform the structure of Kurdistan’s downstream sector, aiming to wean it from expensive subsidies.If successful, the plans could help the cash-strapped KRG save hundreds of millions of dol… 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 .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ISIS Transforming Into Functioning State That Uses Terror as Tool

ISTANBUL — The Islamic State uses terror to force obedience and frighten enemies. It has seized territory, destroyed antiquities, slaughtered minorities, forced women into sexual slavery and turned children into killers. But its officials are apparently resistant to bribes, and in that way, at least, it has outdone the corrupt Syrian and Iraqi governments it routed, residents and experts say. “You can travel from Raqqa to Mosul and no one will dare to stop you even if you carry $1 million,” said Bilal, who lives in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria , and out of fear insisted on being identified only by his first name. “No one would dare to take even one dollar.” The Islamic State, also known as ISIS , ISIL and Daesh, initially functioned solely as a terrorist organization, if one more coldblooded even than Al Qaeda. Then it went on to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Mosul insurgents challenge Islamic State occupiers

Members of the Islamic State militant group drive through Mosul on June 12, 2014. (STRINGER/Reuters) MOSUL – Members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group are being hunted in and around Mosul. Dozens of militants have been killed, mostly gunned down by assassins, over the past two months as the group that calls itself Kataib al-Mosul – the Mosul Brigades, in English – has launched a violent insurgency. "We finally decided to end our silence," said Fawaz al-Badrani, the pseudonym used by a leader of Kataib al-Mosul, who spoke to Iraq Oil Report by phone. "What we mainly sought for is the liberation of Mosul, even if it means cooperating with the devil himself." Badrani claims to have been a Republican Guard officer under Saddam Hussein. In addition to targeting IS fighters directly, his group has helped feed locations of IS military positions and other information to pro-government forces […]

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Iraqis launch offensive against Islamic State near Anbar military base

Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal fighters launched an offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants near the western outpost of Haditha in a bid to secure a key supply route to an important military base, police and tribal sources said. Haditha and its nearby dam are in one of the few parts of the Sunni Muslim province of Anbar still under the control of Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government forces, which were driven out of the provincial capital Ramadi in May.The offensive started with army and police forces backed by Sunni tribal fighters attacking the Albu Hayat area, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Haditha. Militants have used the area to strike the supply route to the Ain al-Asad military base where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops. "We are attacking Daesh from three directions and we will not retreat until retaking Albu Hayat to secure not only Haditha but the […]

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Is ISIL running out of oil?

Iraq though has had significant success in taking down ISIL’S smuggling operation [File: ISIL] It has been alleged that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has made millions in Iraq, smuggling oil from various sites that they control around the country. According to the US, the figures could run into millions of dollars a week. While it is true that ISIL had control of Iraq’s largest oil refinery, Beiji, until recently, it also controls a number of oil wells and continues to exploit them. When ISIL fighters arrived in June 2014, they found themselves in possession of rich oil wells in Nineveh province, south of Mosul. This allowed them to establish smuggling operations, following criminal routes long established and join them up with smuggling routes in Syria. A common route came into being. Husham al-Brifkani, the head of the energy committee of Nineveh’s provincial council, said: […]

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ISIS Leader Is Delegating His Powers in Case He Is Killed

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State’s reclusive leader has empowered his inner circle of deputies as well as regional commanders in Syria and Iraq with wide-ranging authority, a plan to ensure that if he or other top figures are killed, the organization will quickly adapt and continue fighting, American and Iraqi intelligence officials say. The officials say the leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , delegates authority to his cabinet, or shura council, which includes ministers of war, finance, religious affairs and others. The Islamic State’s leadership under Mr. Baghdadi has drawn mainly from two pools: veterans of Al Qaeda in Iraq who survived the insurgency against American forces with battle-tested militant skills, and former Baathist officers under Saddam Hussein with expertise in organization, intelligence and internal security. It is the merger of these two skill sets that has made the organization such a potent force, the officials say. But equally important […]

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Noose tightens around thousands caught in Iraq’s Anbar offensive

As Iraqi forces prepare to try to recapture the city of Falluja, tens of thousands of civilians find themselves trapped between Islamic State militants ready to use them as human shields and a government suspicious of their loyalties. With the jihadists coercing them to stay, and a government blockade and shelling closing exit routes and cutting off supplies, there is "a vice, a noose around the neck of the population", Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, told Reuters. Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim-led government on Monday announced the start of operations to "liberate Anbar", the province west of Baghdad whose Sunni Muslim cities and towns along the Euphrates have since last year become strongholds of Islamic State. "Since military operations began, it has become impossible to leave," said one 42-year-old teacher. "They (Islamic State) have planted bombs at the entrance and exits to the city and on the main […]

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Islamic State claims suicide car bomb that kills more than 100 in Iraq

More than 100 people were killed in a suicide car bombing at a busy market in an Iraqi town on Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks carried out by Islamic State militants since they overran large parts of the country. The blast brought down several buildings in Khan Bani Saad, about 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Baghdad, crushing to death people who were celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, police and medics said. Islamic State, which controls large parts of northern and western Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in the mixed eastern province of Diyala where Khan Bani Saad is located and said the target was "rejectionists", as the group refers to Shi’ite Muslims. Angry crowds went on the rampage after the explosion, smashing the windows of cars parked in the street in grief and anger. Body parts were flung onto the […]

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Deaths and arrests in southern power protests

Protestors outside the Majnoon oil field in Basra province on July 16 demand electricity from Royal Dutch Shell. (ALI ABU IRAQ/Iraq Oil Report) At least one protestor was killed in a series of armed clashes with police over persistent power outages in Basra, as demonstrations across Iraq’s sweltering southern provinces continued for a second day, and threatened to halt an oil project in the province’s supergiant Majnoon field.A young man was killed by police during protests in Basra’s al-Madayna district, just south of the West Qurna 2 oil field in the north of the province, said a senior Basra Operations Command official. Fou… 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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US apaches strike Daesh positions near Iraq’s Mosul

U.S. helicopter gunships on Wednesday carried out raids on four positions held by the Daesh militant group near Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, a Daesh stronghold, leaving more than 15 militants dead, according to a Kurdish Peshmerga officer. “U.S. apaches carried out a string of raids on Daesh positions on the outskirts of Al-Fadeliya [a town located 17 kilometers northeast of Mosul],” Lieut. Raed Mazouri of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces told Anadolu Agency. Iraq has suffered from a security vacuum since the summer of last year, when Daesh militants overran the northern Mosul province. Massacres perpetrated by the group in the latter half of 2014 – along with the forced deportation of minority populations from areas held by Daesh – led to the establishment of a U.S.-led coalition last September to combat the extremist group. In the ten months since, the coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against Daesh […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple