Category: Iraq

While Iran ’s military has toned down its rhetoric about military capabilities and exercises, it continues a low-profile buildup of weapons in and near the Strait of Hormuz, according to a classified Pentagon assessment. “Iran’s military strategy is defensive” and designed to “deter an attack, survive an initial strike, retaliate against an aggressor and force a diplomatic solution” while avoiding major concessions, says the unclassified executive summary of a congressionally mandated Pentagon report submitted to lawmakers on July 7. Since the August 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian government “has adjusted some of its tactics” to achieve core objectives such as preserving the rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , according to the summary, which was obtained by Bloomberg News . “Of note, Tehran’s strategic messaging about its military capabilities through the mass media has been less strident since Rouhani took over,” it said. “Widespread publicity […]

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The West Qurna oil field in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, as seen in March. Output from the area is underpinning the country’s militant-threatened oil production. Reuters LONDON—Iraq is pushing forward with an ambitious increase in production at its prolific southern oil fields, as an Islamist insurgency has strangled output in the country’s north. Russian oil company Lukoil Holdings said on Tuesday that output at its West Qurna II field has reached over 280,000 barrels a day from 120,000 barrels a day when it first started pumping from the field in March. West Qurna II is one of several large tracts under development and is crucial to Iraq’s ambitious plans to ramp up output from its southern fields, which have remained shielded from the violence in the north of the country. The country, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is targeting output of around 8.4 […]

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Iraqi prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi Iraqi prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi The threat of Iraq’s collapse has forced conciliatory tones from the country’s Sunni and Shia Arab populations – but the Kurds, once the kingmakers of Iraqi politics, are vowing to play hardball. Prime minister designate Haidar al-Abadi has 20 days to put together a cabinet, and foreign powers are pressing for a national unity government that can bring Iraq’s main parties together and slowly heal divisions along sectarian and ethnic lines. More On this story On this topic IN Middle East & North Africa The race to reach the political consensus Iraq needs to unlock greater foreign and internal support for its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis) takes place as its army, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shia militias separately battle to contain the territorial gains made by the group in a […]

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MOSUL DAM, Iraq — The two bodies lay festering in the midday sun on Tuesday, some of the only remnants of the Sunni militant force that until Monday night controlled the strategically important Mosul Dam. Around them was the evidence of not just a fierce battle but also a different sort of fight: buildings reduced to rubble; cars churned into twisted metal; mammoth craters gouged from the road. All bore testament to the deadly effect American airstrikes were having on the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, who until this month were marauding over northern Iraq with little resistance and who two weeks ago seized control of the dam. It was not until President Obama authorized airstrikes by the United States military on Aug. 7 that the Sunni fighters’ advance was halted. Two days of concerted air assaults starting Sunday around the dam then […]

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Iraqi forces have launched an operation to retake Tikrit, the hometown of toppled President Saddam Hussein, from Islamic State fighters. Al Jazeera sources reported that the troops were advancing from the south and southwest and heavy clashes with the armed group were taking place 10km from the the city, capital of Salahidin province and located about 200km north of Baghdad. Tikrit fell to the group formerly known as ISIL on June 11 and has since been controlled mostly by Sunni armed groups, including former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath party. "We have to remember Tikrit is an urban city so there’s going to be fighting in urban areas. The army had abandoned their positions in much of the Sunni heartland in June when the IS group took control of that territory," Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reported from Erbil. "There’s a real risk of this becoming a Sunni-Shia war because […]

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BAGHDAD — The last time the United States pushed Iraqis to choose a new prime minister who could unite the country to confront a sectarian civil war was in 2006, and the Iraqis chose Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The result was another civil war. This time, with the country again on the edge of collapse, they have chosen Haider al-Abadi. Both men come from the same Shiite Islamist movement whose members, after decades of clandestine opposition to Saddam Hussein and the Sunni elite that dominated his rule, were asked to govern Iraq in an inclusive way that accommodated the Sunnis they considered their former tormentors. So far, that has proved elusive, but this time hope rests on a belief that Mr. Abadi is a different type of Islamist: one whose education, big-city upbringing and decades of living in Britain can surmount what have seemed the reflexive positions of Iraqi Shiite […]

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The West Qurna oil field in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, as seen in March. Output from the area is underpinning the country’s militant-threatened oil production. Reuters LONDON—Iraq is pushing forward with an ambitious increase in production at its prolific southern oil fields, as an Islamist insurgency has strangled output in the country’s north. Russian oil company Lukoil Holdings said on Tuesday that output at its West Qurna II field has reached over 280,000 barrels a day from 120,000 barrels a day when it first started pumping from the field in March. West Qurna II is one of several large tracts under development and is crucial to Iraq’s ambitious plans to ramp up output from its southern fields, which have remained shielded from the violence in the north of the country. The country, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is targeting output of around 8.4 […]

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Russian oil company Lukoil said Tuesday a tanker loaded with crude oil taken from the West Qurna project in Iraq has left the southern port city of Basra. Lukoil said Sea Triumph, a tanker chartered by its international marketing subsidiary, left port with 1 million barrels of oil. Lukoil said it’s the first batch of oil from its operations in the West Qurna-2 project in Iraq. "The vessel is bound for Augusta, Sicily," the company said in a statement. "Upon unloading, the oil will be transported for refining to Lukoil’s refinery in Priolo [Italy]." First oil was produced from West Qurna-2 , located in southern Iraq, in March. Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, signed a contract revision in June to build two 75-mile pipelines and associated infrastructure. The system links the oil field to an export terminal in Basra, situated along the coast of the Persian Gulf. The […]

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Photographer: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images Related President Barack Obama said the U.S. will continue “limited” airstrikes against Islamic State militants, which have stopped their advance on the city of Erbil and helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces recapture a key dam at Mosul. The U.S. approach has led to “important progress” against the insurgents, Obama said yesterday at the White House. He said the U.S. is working to pull together an international coalition to support humanitarian relief in northern Iraq. Obama, who pressured former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki to step down, is seeking quick appointment of a new Iraqi government under Prime Minister-Designate Haidar Al-Abadi as a stabilizing step for the region for both Iraq and Syria. The future of Iraq depends on formation of a “credible Iraqi government,” he said. “They’ve got to get this done because the wolf’s at the door.” Obama spoke after meeting with Vice President […]

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Oil Search Ltd. (OSH) temporarily suspended a well in Iraqi Kurdistan after violence in the region disrupted its ability to get skilled technicians and equipment to the Taza oil project. Oil Search’s other operations in the area are continuing with the security situation stable, the oil producer said today in a statement as it posted a 34 percent gain in first-half profit. Oil Search declined 0.4 percent to A$9.41 as of 10:52 a.m. in Sydney trading. “We are continuing to monitor the security situation closely and plan to re-commence Taza-2 operations once we are confident that the long-term integrity of our supply chain has been safely re-established,” according to the statement. Oil companies including Chevron Corp. and Afren Plc evacuated staff and halted drilling operations in Kurdistan earlier this month as Islamist militants advanced into northern Iraq. Oil Search plans further drilling in the semi-autonomous region where the economy […]

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