Category: Iraq

Iraqi policemen raise their weapons during a training session at a camp in the Bardarash district in January The Pentagon took the unusual step on Thursday of disclosing plans for an Iraqi-led attempt to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from Islamist militants with a ground offensive this spring. A senior US official said that a force of 20,000 Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers was being prepared to conduct the battle against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant , known as Isis, which took control of the northern Iraqi city last year. The US has been publicly signalling an impending assault to retake Mosul for months, in part as an attempt to frighten Isis fighters or convince non-Isis insurgent groups that have worked with it to drift away While the broad objective of launching a ground campaign to retake Mosul in the late spring or early summer has been widely […]

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Followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attend open-air Friday prayers in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. (Karim Kadim/AP) BAGHDAD — Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Tuesday that he would freeze the activities of his militias, potentially pulling back thousands of fighters from the battle against Islamic State militants. Sadr claimed to have taken the decision as a “show of goodwill” following reports of atrocities by Shiite militia groups, many of which are not under his control. Analysts said, however, that other strategic motivations may have prompted the move. The cleric’s order covered the Peace Brigades and the Promised Day Brigade, both of which have their roots in the Mahdi Army, the notorious Sadr militia that was responsible for thousands of attacks on U.S. troops during the Iraq war. The Peace Brigades is among the largest of the Shiite militias that have proliferated since the Islamic State rapidly […]

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, left, discusses budgetary concerns with visiting Kurdish counterpart Nechirvan Barzani. Photo courtesy of Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government said a delegation led by Prime Minister Nechrivan Barzani met during the weekend with federal officials to discuss the status of a December agreement on oil exports and budgetary issues. "During the meeting, it became apparent that due to the financial crisis in Iraq and the lack of liquidity, the Iraqi government is unable to pay the Kurdistan region’s share of January and February from the federal budget," the KRG said in a Monday statement. "The two sides agreed to continue holding further talks in order to find an appropriate solution to the situation." A January report from the World Bank found the federal government’s efforts to redistribute oil revenues for the public good had mixed results. Though oil production is breaking pre-conflict records, […]

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KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani at a press conference in Erbil on May 1, 2013. (SOURCE: krg.org) Published Monday, February 16th, 2015 Recommend 2 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Iraqi leaders have failed to jump-start a stalled oil export and revenue-sharing deal between the federal government and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani led a delegation to Baghdad on Sunday for talks aimed at reviving their cooperation. But neither side has met the terms of the deal, which is embedded in the 2015 budget law, and officials from both governments indicated the agreement is still essentially on hold.“There is an item…

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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand guard on the outskirts of Mosul January 26, 2015. (Stringer/Iraq/Reuters) KIRKUK, Iraq The view from the roof of Gov. Najmaldin Karim’s office shows this multiethnic city laid out below. He points toward the Sunni suburb of Huwija about 15 miles west, which is controlled by the Islamic State. Two weeks ago, the extremists staged a ferocious assault there that almost broke through Kirkuk’s defense lines. “ISIS has its eyes on Kirkuk. It is the big prize for them,” says Karim, using the term for the enemy that’s common here. This very morning, a gray day when poor visibility favored the attackers, the Islamic State launched an artillery and mortar strike from a Sunni suburb called Daquq, south of the city. Coalition airstrikes have pounded ISIS targets here twice this week. Kirkuk province sits uneasily on the fault line with Kurdistan to the east, the Shiite-led Baghdad […]

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ENLARGE Iraqi army soldiers on Nov. 11, 2014, at al-Asad airbase. On Friday, Islamic State militants made the most direct attack on a base used by U.S. forces since the current conflict began. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images WASHINGTON—Islamic State militants wearing Iraqi military uniforms and suicide vests attacked an Iraqi air base where U.S. military advisers are training Iraq’s security forces, the most direct attack on a base used by U.S. forces since the current conflict began. The attack came a day after Islamic State militants took control of a town near the base, the first new territorial gain by the group in Iraq in many weeks, officials said. On Friday, a group of 20 to 25 Islamic State militants, many dressed in Iraqi army uniforms, attacked the edge of the huge al-Asad Air Base before being repelled by Iraqi security forces, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon […]

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Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abdulmahdi (left), KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani (center), and KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani (right), in Erbil on Nov. 13, reach a deal on restarting revenue sharing payments and exports. (Source: Kurdistan Regional Government) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is set to receive a budget payment from Baghdad as soon as Iraq’s federal budget law officially takes force, despite continued uncertainty about Kurdistan’s contributions to federal oil exports.“A budget payment will be made very soon to the KRG of their share, according to the agreement that was reached, as soon as the law is made official,” said Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s Minister of Finance.The final step in passing the 2015 budget into l…

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Iraqi oil production grew at a faster rate than any country apart from the United States, analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found.  “Despite some supply disruptions and security threats, Continue Reading

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook Despite some supply disruptions and security threats, Iraq was the second-leading contributor to global oil supply growth in 2014, behind only the United States. Iraq accounted for almost 60% of production growth among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although this growth was more than offset by production declines in other OPEC countries. Iraq’s crude oil production, which averaged almost 3.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2014, was 330,000 bbl/d above 2013 levels, despite the heightened security threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and disrupted production in northern Iraq. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, Iraq Country Analysis Brief ISIL attacks in northern Iraq in early June 2014 reduced northern Iraqi production and refinery operations (not including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region). These attacks did not affect southern production and exports, which […]

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