Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi flew to Russia on Wednesday seeking closer military cooperation as he faces tough challenges in the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group. Abadi, who Continue Reading
ENLARGE Iraqi forces defend their headquarters against attacks by Islamic State extremists during a sand storm in the eastern part of Ramadi on Thursday, May 14. Photo: Associated Press WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is turning its focus in Iraq away from the northern city of Mosul toward the province west of Baghdad, where Islamic State captured the key city of Ramadi over the weekend. U.S. officials conceded on Wednesday that any hope of seizing military momentum in Iraq has been stalled by the Sunni militants’ takeover of the capital of Sunni-dominated Anbar Province. That has forced American officials to shift their plans . “Everybody is focused like a laser on Anbar right now,” said a senior State Department official. For months, U.S. officials had hoped to mount an offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest. But officials in Washington and elsewhere on Wednesday said that plan would […]
Security is not a concern for operations in the Kurdish north of Iraq, Gulf Keystone Petroleum CEO says. Photo courtesy: Gulf Keystone Petroleum. LONDON, May 20 (UPI) — Security in the northern Iraqi oil fields is not a concern for British energy company Gulf Keystone Petroleum, its chief executive officer said. "Security right now is not a concern for us," CEO John Gerstenlauer said in an operational update. "Everything is going along quite smoothly." Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi gave his approval during the weekend for a military assault on the western Iraqi city of Ramadi after the Sunni-dominated region was overrun by the group calling itself the Islamic State. "The loss of Ramadi does not mean the tide of the campaign has turned, and we have long said that there would be ebbs and flows on the battlefield," U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman Elissa Smith said. The Islamic group […]
Smoke rises from the Ajil oil field as Shia militiamen gather in al-Hadidiya, south of Tikrit, on March 6, 2015. (THAIER AL-SUDANI/Reuters) Recommend Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Islamic State (IS) militant group has destroyed a crucial flow tank at the Ajil oil field near Tikrit, rendering the entire field offline for at least a year."Ajil produces oil from the wells and gathers it into one flow tank from which we used to pump the crude to Kirkuk," said a senior official from the state-run North Oil Company (NOC), which operates the field. "That flow tank does not exist anymore."The tank was hit during a rocket attack by IS militants late Monday and early Tu… 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 . […]
BAGHDAD Iraq’s cabinet has approved a $526.6 million drilling deal with China’s Zhongman for the West Qurna Two oilfield, the government said in a statement on Tuesday. Under the 28-month contract, Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas will drill 66 production oil wells at West Qurna Two, operated by Russia’s Lukoil, the statement said. Current production capacity at West Qurna Two is over 400,000 bpd but actual output is less than 350,000 bpd. Ranked as one of the largest oil fields in the world, West Qurna Two, where Lukoil holds a 75-percent stake, is one of several big fields under development which are set to boost Iraq’s economy. (Reporting by Baghdad bureau)
Photo Sunni volunteers for the fight against the Islamic State during their first training session at a military base in Amiriyat Falluja, one of the last cities of Anbar Province in government hands. Credit Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images AMIRIYAT FALLUJA, Iraq — More than a thousand Iraqi Sunni fighters stood at attention, dressed in camouflage but holding no weapons, as the tribal leader began exhorting them to fiercely battle the militants of the Islamic State, taking up rhetoric tinged with Arab notions of vengeance. “It is now time for revenge for our martyrs,” said the sheikh, Falih al-Essawi, who was dressed in a military uniform. He checked off the destruction wrought in their lands by the Islamic State, or, as he called them, “the rats of ISIS ”: 25,000 homes leveled, he said, bridges burned, the economy devastated. He and other speakers made an explicit plea to […]
Shia pilgrims carry a symbolic coffin at the holy shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kazim shrine to commemorate his death in the Shia district of Kazimiyah, Baghdad, Iraq, 14 May 2015. Photograph: Karim Kadim/AP Iraq and its security occupy a central part in the debate about a possible nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The Gulf Arab states fear that Tehran, boosted by the relaxation of economic sanctions, will try to expand and consolidate its “hegemonic” grip over the Middle East. According to this argument, Iranian hegemony will above all affect Iraq, where Tehran seeks to install a government in thrall to it, hindering the formation of a viable democratic system in its western neighbour. The domestic and foreign exponents of this view point to the growing power of Tehran-backed Shia groups fighting the so-called Islamic State (Isis) as proof of attempts to plant an Iranian “deep state” in […]
Two sets of highly regarded experts warn we are losing our fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Islamic state’s grip on Libya hardens . So naturally the press wants to talk about 2003. Kim and Fred Kagan, who were instrument in the successful Iraq surge write, “The seizure of Ramadi on Sunday leaves President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State in ruins not only in Iraq but also throughout the Muslim world. It means that the Iraqi security forces will almost certainly not be able to recapture Mosul this year and, therefore, that the Islamic State will retain its largest city in Iraq. Worse, it gives the group momentum again in Iraq even as it gains ground in Syria and expands in the Sinai, Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere. This defeat was avoidable.” They argue, “Neither the Islamic State nor any other al-Qaeda offshoot has ever taken […]
Years of graft and strife have left neither the means nor narrative to defend Iraq as a nation-state Enter your email address Select an access level You may also be interested in our corporate or newspaper only subscriptions.
Photo Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq at the Capitol in Washington last month. Credit James Lawler Duggan/Reuters BAGHDAD — The campaign to retake Anbar Province from the Islamic State was supposed to be Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s show. The script went like this: American air power plus a ground force of Iraqi security forces and local Sunni tribal fighters would push out the militants, with Iran and its Shiite militias nowhere to be seen. Now, with Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, fully in the hands of the Islamic State , thousands of Shiite militiamen on Monday were rushing to Sunni territory to try to turn the fight around, officials said. And Mr. Abadi’s rivals within Iraq ’s Shiite political bloc, many of whom accuse him of doing too much to work with Sunnis rather than just empowering the militias, were enjoying another setback for the increasingly weakened prime […]
