Category: Iraq

How ISIS Came to Control Large Portions of Syria and Iraq The militant group called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria seemed to surprise many American and Iraqi officials with the recent gains it made in its violent campaign to create a new religious state. But the victories achieved in the past few weeks were built on months of maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which define a region known as the cradle of civilization. Cities: ISIS Control Attacked by ISIS The Euphrates The Tigris After establishing footholds in Syria and Anbar Province, ISIS turned to northern Iraq. The swift capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and a key political, military and commercial hub, gave ISIS a launching pad for a rapid series of attacks in which its fighters seized towns along the Tigris River heading south to Baghdad. Additional reporting by TIM ARANGO, MIKE BOSTOCK, C.J. […]

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Gulf Keystone Petroleum said Thursday its operations in the Kurdish north of Iraq are safe, though precautionary measures are in place. Gulf Keystone is one of the premier oil producers in the Kurdish north of Iraq. The company in June said production from the Shaikan oil field in the region should be at 40,000 barrels per day by year’s end. Kurdish forces this week responded to incursions from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a Sunni-led group that declared an Islamic state over parts of northwestern Iraq. The company, which has headquarters in London, said its Shaikan production facilities are safe and secure. "While there is no immediate threat to any of the company’s operations in the region, we continue to monitor the situation closely and operate with increased security as a precaution," the company said in a statement . Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a […]

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U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. said it has cut the numbers of its overseas staff working in the Kurdish region of Iraq as the militant group Islamic State pushed their offensive closer to the area, and amid reports of a car bomb blast in the nearby northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Chevron’s move comes as shares in Kurdistan-focused oil producers listed in Europe plunged on Thursday. "We are closely monitoring the situation," a Chevron spokeswoman in London said. "We have reviewed the business critical positions and as a consequence made a reduction in the total numbers of expatriates in the region." Exxon Mobil is also evacuating staff from Kurdistan, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an industry source. A spokesman for the company said it doesn’t comment on security matters. Shares in London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd fell as much as 13%—to their lowest level since 2010—after the Islamic State captured […]

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U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. said it has cut the numbers of its overseas staff working in the Kurdish region of Iraq as the militant group Islamic State pushed their offensive closer to the area, and amid reports of a car bomb blast in the nearby northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Chevron’s move comes as shares in Kurdistan-focused oil producers listed in Europe plunged on Thursday. "We are closely monitoring the situation," a Chevron spokeswoman in London said. "We have reviewed the business critical positions and as a consequence made a reduction in the total numbers of expatriates in the region." Exxon Mobil is also evacuating staff from Kurdistan, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an industry source. A spokesman for the company said it doesn’t comment on security matters. Shares in London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd fell as much as 13%—to their lowest level since 2010—after the Islamic State captured […]

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BAGHDAD — The crisis gripping Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday with a re-energized Islamic State in Iraq and Syria storming new towns in the north and seizing a strategic dam as Iraq’s most formidable military force, the Kurdish pesh merga, was routed in the face of the onslaught. The loss of the Mosul Dam, the largest in Iraq, to the insurgents was the most dramatic consequence of a militant offensive in the north, which has sent tens of thousands of refugees, many from the Yazidi minority, fleeing into a vast mountainous landscape. In one captured town, Sinjar, ISIS executed dozens of Yazidi men, and kept the dead men’s wives for unmarried jihadi fighters. Panic on Thursday spread even to the Kurdish capital of Erbil, long considered a safe haven, with civilians flooding the airport in a futile attempt to buy tickets to Baghdad. As chaos tore through northern Iraq, […]

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The slide in Iraq ’s dollar bond since June, when Islamic militants overran much of the country’s north, is being contained by rising oil revenue as exports increase in the south. The yield on Iraq’s January 2028 dollar security has jumped 109 basis points to 7.37 percent since tumbling to an 16-month low on June 9, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rate remains below this year’s high of 7.74 percent in February, and compares with a 30 basis-point increase in the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Emerging Markets Global Sovereign Bond Yield Index. While insurgents from the Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot, have seized oil fields and are battling for control of two dams as they threaten Prime Minister Nouri Kamil Al-Maliki’s government, most of the nation’s production is flowing without interruption in the south. Crude sales rose 5 percent last month to 2.44 million barrels a day. […]

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Sunni extremists repelled efforts by Kurdish pesh merga forces on Wednesday to push them back in areas east of Mosul in northern Iraq , and shelled a predominantly Christian village there, in what appeared to be a renewed push along the Kurdish border to take ground, control oil fields and water resources and expel minority groups. As artillery shells landed in the village of Qara Qosh, which is largely Christian, and plumes of smoke from the explosions drifted across the dry Nineveh plain just 25 miles from the Kurdish capital, Erbil, panicked residents fled in cars and pickups piled with their belongings, creating long lines at checkpoints guarded by the Kurdish pesh merga. “We heard the sound of artillery,” said Ahmed, a father of three. “It was very close to us; the windows were shaking, and when I looked at my family’s faces, I had to […]

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As Sunni and Kurdish forces battled on Thursday for control of towns west of Erbil, the regional capital of northern Iraq, civilians fleeing the fighting flooded the airport here and swamped the Iraqi Airways office in a futile attempt to get tickets to Baghdad. In the early hours of Thursday, forces from the Kurdish pesh merga left checkpoints guarding several largely Christian settlements because they had been called to defend Kurdish towns closer to Erbil, according to a colonel in the Kurdish Defense Ministry. By late Wednesday night, Kurdish television was reporting that Mahmour and Gwar, two Kurdish settlements less than 20 miles west of Erbil, had fallen to Sunni extremists from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. By Thursday morning, a colonel in the pesh merga said that Mahmour had been retaken, while militants remained in control of Gwar. The latest ISIS […]

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in northern Iraq on Wednesday in a change of tactics supported by the Iraqi central government to try to break the Islamists’ momentum. The attack 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Arbil came after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Kurds on Sunday with a rapid advance through three towns, prompting Iraq’s prime minister to order his air force for the first time to back the Kurdish forces. "We have changed our tactics from being defensive to being offensive. Now we are clashing with the Islamic State in Makhmur," said Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the ministry in charge of the Kurdish peshmerga fighters. The location of the clashes puts the Islamic State fighters closer than they have ever been to the Kurdish semi-autonomous region since they swept through northern Iraq […]

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The combined efforts of the Iraqi and Kurdish governments have not rescued the thousands of civilians threatened with imminent death after the most recent ISIS offensive. As civilians die, Kurds decry international inaction Thousands of members of Iraq’s Yezidi minority remain stranded on Sinjar Mountain, as Kurdish and Iraqi efforts to provide support have failed in the face of a persistent insurgency.The U.S. and other foreign powers have not provided direct assistance to the Yezidis, either in the form of humanitarian air drops or military air support to the Kurdish soldiers fighting to free them. Kurdish leaders warn that such international inaction spells doom for the Yezidis and risks empowering anti-gove… 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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