Category: Iraq

Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is taking his struggle to keep his job to the courts after announcing he will file a legal complaint on Monday against the country’s newly elected president. The deadlock over a new government has plunged Iraq into a political crisis at a time it is fighting a land grab by militants from the Islamic State in the country’s north and west. Al-Maliki has resisted calls for his resignation and the political infighting could hamper efforts to stem advances by the Sunni militants. Senior U.S. officials said Monday that the Obama administration, which launched airdrops and airstrikes last week to support Kurdish and Iraqi forces battling the militants, has begun directly providing weapons to the Kurdish peshmerga forces who have started to make gains against the al-Qaida breakaway group. In a televised speech after midnight Sunday, al-Maliki declared he will file […]

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BAGHDAD—Kurdish forces said they retook two important parts of northern Iraq on Sunday, reversing gains by Islamist militants while U.S. warplanes conducted a third day of airstrikes on the insurgents. The advance of the radical Sunni group Islamic State into the semiautonomous region last week sparked a humanitarian disaster and prompted the first U.S. military intervention in Iraq in three years. Kurdish fighters overtook Islamic State positions in Makhmur District, a region north of the city of Kirkuk, and the nearby town of Gwair. The fighters, who until recently had called themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had taken over the two towns last week as part of a broader push toward Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region. The U.S. State Department on Sunday relocated "a limited number" of staff from the American embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. consulate […]

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With American strikes beginning to show clear effects on the battlefield, Kurdish forces counterattacked Sunni militants in northern Iraq on Sunday, regaining control of two strategic towns with aid from the air. The American airstrikes, carried out by drones and fighter jets, were intended to support the Kurdish forces fighting to defend Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, according to a statement by the United States Central Command. They destroyed three military vehicles being used by the militant group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and damaged others, the statement said, adding that the warplanes also destroyed a mortar position. The wreckage of three heavily armed trucks lay twisted and scorched in Gwer, one of the recaptured towns, a few hours after the strikes, and body parts from at least three militants were scattered nearby. Kurdish militiamen, known as pesh merga, confirmed seeing […]

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Special forces teams and army tanks surrounded the Green Zone housing Iraq’s government as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fiercely clung to power Sunday, taking the stability of the country to the brink at a moment when it is already facing a lethal challenge from radical Islamist fighters. In actions that had all the markings of a political coup, Maliki gave a defiant late-night speech in Baghdad saying he would lodge a legal case against the country’s president, who has resisted naming him as the candidate for another term as prime minister. Tanks rumbled onto major bridges and roads in the capital as security forces were put on high alert, with militiamen also patrolling Shiite neighborhoods. The special forces teams surrounding the Green Zone were taking orders directly from the prime minister, security officials said. Maliki’s critics blame him for overseeing the de facto fragmentation of the country, […]

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Anti-government forces lose ground in areas of northern Iraq heavily populated by people and oil reserves. Oil fields remain beyond reach of frontline fight Peshmerga keep watch to the south of the Khurmala Dome central processing facility, whose flares burn in the background. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) American air strikes helped Kurdish forces take back two key towns from anti-government fighters who were threatening key oil installations and the city of Erbil.If militants had been able to hold the towns of Guair and Makhmour, they would have had a direct path to the Khurmala Dome oil field a dozen kilometers away.But the frontline has thus far been successfully held by Kurdish fighters, in coordination with American and Iraqi forces, here In the cradle of the oil industry in Iraq, th… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may […]

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Sunni insurgents expanded their push along the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan, a semiautonomous region in Iraq’s north, as thousands of people besieged by the militants on a mountainside received fresh aid supplies. The group calling itself Islamic State , which began a new offensive this week that brought it to 25 miles from the Kurdish capital Erbil, seized a town farther north called Sheikhan, closer to the Kurdish-controlled province of Dohuk . The militants appear to be trying to connect the towns they have seized along the 650-mile border of Kurdish-controlled territory, an advance that has alarmed the Kurdistan Regional Government and panicked the residents of this region. The advance came after two rounds of U.S. strikes aimed at halting […]

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Oil companies have begun evacuating staff and suspending operations at some fields in Iraqi Kurdistan as the U.S. begins airstrikes intended to halt the advance of Sunni extremists toward the region’s capital Erbil. London-based Afren and Canada-listed Oryx Petroleum both announced Friday they had suspended parts of their operations in the country. Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy said it was withdrawing some nonessential personnel, following a similar announcement by Chevron Thursday. The security situation in the area bordering Iraqi Kurdistan has deteriorated rapidly this week as the militant group Islamic State pushed into territory held by the Peshmerga, the region’s security force, raising serious concerns about areas previously considered safe. Oryx said it had suspended operations at two sites on its Hawler license near to areas where clashes were recently reported, while production at its Demir Dagh field has also been shut in. Meanwhile, Afren has stopped operations at its Barda […]

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Oil explorers in Kurdistan halted operations and evacuated more staff as Islamist militants advanced into northern Iraq. Afren Plc (AFR) suspended work at its Barda Rash block on the region’s western border, while Oryx Petroleum Corp. stopped production at its Demir Dagh facility and temporarily halted drilling at two other areas. Genel Energy Plc (GENL) evacuated some staff and Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GKP) increased security. Two U.S. jet fighters struck artillery used by Islamic State militants to attack Kurdish forces defending the road to the regional capital of Erbil, where American diplomats and some military staff are based. President Obama yesterday authorized airstrikes to protect U.S. citizens and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing Islamist attacks. “In line with moves by other operators, we are taking the prudent and precautionary step of withdrawing non-essential personnel from our non-producing assets in the region,” Genel […]

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ISIS Capture Iraq’s Largest Dam Sunni militants captured the Mosul dam, the largest in Iraq, on Thursday as their advances in the country’s north created an onslaught of refugees and set off fearful rumors in Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital. Residents near the dam and officials in the region confirmed that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, held the dam, a potentially catastrophic development for Iraq’s civilian population. The dam, which sits on the Tigris River and is about 30 miles northwest of the city of Mosul, provides electricity to Mosul and controls the water supply for a large amount of territory. A report published in 2007 by the United States government, which had been involved with work on the dam, warned that should it fail, a 65-foot wave of water could be unleashed across areas of northern Iraq. Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of Nineveh Province, […]

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An Iranian official said Friday during talks in Azerbaijan both sides could work together on energy issues possibly extending into the European economy. Iranian Minister of Communication and Information Technologies Mahmoud Vaezi met in Baku with Rovneq Abdullayev, director of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic. The Iranian minister said he was reviewing an offer from Baku to coordinate energy policies more closely for the sake of the needs of the European community. "Azerbaijan and Iran has large oil and gas reserves, which indicates the need for increased cooperation between the countries in this area," he said . Azerbaijan is scheduled to supply natural gas from its Shah Deniz field to European consumers through a network of pipelines that would run through Turkey to southern Europe. Dubbed the Southern Corridor , the network is meant to diversify a European energy sector influenced heavily by Russia. Iran has held […]

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