Category: Iraq

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials. The first phase, an air campaign with nearly 145 airstrikes in the past month, is already underway to protect ethnic and religious minorities and American diplomatic, intelligence and military personnel, and their facilities, as well as to begin rolling back ISIS gains in northern and western Iraq . The next phase, which would begin sometime after Iraq forms a more inclusive government, scheduled this week, is expected to involve an intensified effort to train, advise or equip the Iraqi military, Kurdish fighters and possibly members of Sunni tribes. The final, toughest and most politically controversial phase of the operation — destroying the terrorist […]

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NEWPORT, Wales — President Obama escalated the American response to the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago. In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its friends could defeat ISIS, a once-obscure group of Sunni militants that has now upended the Middle East and overshadowed Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama said the effort would rely on American airstrikes against its leaders and positions, strengthen the moderate Syrian rebel groups to reclaim ground lost to ISIS, and enlist friendly governments in the region to join the fight. While the president’s aides maintained that he has not yet decided to authorize airstrikes in Syria — which he has […]

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Exports lag due to violence Iraq’s battle with anti-government militants has begun to hamper the country’s exports, which fell in August to their second-lowest monthly average of the year.The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) sold an average of 2.375 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, "with more than 25 million barrels rolled over from August nomination program into September," an official close to SOMO said. "There were no exports from Kirkuk or to Jordan."A senior official at the state-run South Oil … 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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Iraq ’s Oil Ministry has asked a U.S. judge for permission to change its legal arguments in a bid to seize $100 million in Kurdish crude waiting in a tanker off Texas since late July. Stymied by the judge’s ruling last month that he didn’t have jurisdiction under admiralty law, the nation has come back with claims under maritime and Texas statutes. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston threw out an arrest warrant that gave federal agents authority to take the 1 million-barrel cargo and store it, at Iraq’s expense, if the tanker entered U.S. waters. Miller said he had no authority to intervene in a foreign ownership dispute under U.S. laws governing property stolen on the high seas. Iraq cited those laws as the basis for to recover crude exported from wells in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan without permission. Iraq’s Oil Ministry has now revised […]

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamic State, fighting to redraw the map of the Middle East, has been coaching Egypt’s most dangerous militant group, complicating efforts to stabilize the biggest Arab nation. Confirmation that Islamic Sate, currently the most successful of the region’s jihadi groups, is extending its influence to Egypt will sound alarm bells in Cairo, where the authorities are already facing a security challenge from home-grown militants. A senior commander from the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has killed hundreds of members of the Egyptian security forces over the last year, said Islamic State has provided instructions on how to operate more effectively. "They teach us how to carry out operations. We communicate through the internet," the commander, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters. "They don’t give us weapons or fighters. But they teach us how to create secret cells, consisting of five people. Only one person has […]

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An RAF Tornado GR4 takes off Four British Tornados are already on an intelligence-gathering mission over Iraq The UK is moving closer to scaling up its operations against jihadis in Iraq after meetings with world leaders in Wales at the Nato summit and efforts in Westminster to begin canvassing support for a more full-blooded intervention. British military chiefs have yet to be given any directions on operations in the Middle East but one senior officer said they understood a nod from Number 10 could be imminent. Any operation would be limited in scale, they stressed, and would be likely to take the form of something such as a small, non-combat deployment to Baghdad to train and assist the Iraqi army from behind the front lines or airstrikes alongside the US. A government source played down the notion of any military engagement soon. The UK was “in a place where […]

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NEWPORT Wales (Reuters) – NATO leaders are set to agree at a summit on Friday to help organize security assistance for Iraq in its fight against Islamic State militants, including coordinating the airlift of supplies, a Western official said. NATO is expected to set up a clearing house that would match offers of military supplies to help the Iraqi authorities with available transport aircraft, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. NATO would not take part in any combat operations, and the security assistance would be provided by individual member states and partners, he said. (Reporting by Adrian Croft ; Editing by Paul Taylor)

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Baghdad to file new claims against KRG exports Flares burn at the Khurmala Dome processing facility, a key gathering station for Kurdish exports. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Iraq’s central government is filing new legal claims in its ongoing battle to prevent the autonomous Kurdistan region from independently exporting oil to international markets.On Thursday, lawyers representing Baghdad will file a new claim – as well as an amendment to a previous claim – against an oil tanker filled with Kurdistan-exported crude, which has been idling off the coast of Texas.On Friday or Monday, they will also file a claim in a Greek court against the owner of many tanke… 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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LONDON— BP PLC said Thursday it reached an agreement with the Iraqi government to lower the production target for the vast Rumaila oil field and extend a BP-led group’s time frame to manage the resource. BP signed a deal in 2005 to boost Rumaila’s production from less than 1 million barrels a day at the time to 2.85 million by 2016—a goal which BP said would have made it the world’s second-largest producing field, behind Saudi Arabia’s supergiant Ghawar field. Rumaila currently produces about 1.3 million barrels a day, a BP spokesman said. More recently, the Iraqi government has been negotiating to lower production targets for several fields, including Rumaila. Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaiby said in December that the government was working to renegotiate the Rumaila deal. BP said Thursday that under the new agreement it plans to bring production to 2.1 million barrels a day "within […]

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ISIL and the Confused Energy Picture For everyone following today’s energy developments the overall picture is confusing, to say the least. This is particularly apparent with regard to oil supplies from mid-June onwards when the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL — also referred to as ISIS — Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) conflict flared up, with the insurgents making rapid advances across northern Iraq. It could be expected that the immediate knock-on effect of this conflict would be a surge in oil prices, much like the world experienced back in 2008 when there were similar tensions in the Middle East. Indeed, some commentators suggested that this would happen, claiming that ISIL was bent on controlling Iraqi crude oil and as a result there would be a global oil shock as prices skyrocketed. However, over at Chatham House and the Brookings Institution calmer heads were more cautious. […]

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