Category: Iraq

Attacks overnight in two Iraqi cities killed at least 16 people, officials said Monday as authorities struggle to stop the Sunni militants’ offensive that has left huge areas in northern and western Iraq outside of government control. In one of the attacks, mortar rounds rained down on Shiite neighborhoods in the town of Mahmoudiya on Sunday night, killing 11 civilians and wounding 31, a police official said. The mixed Shiite-Sunni town is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad. And in Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, a roadside bomb struck an army patrol, killing two soldiers and three volunteers who took up arms following the Sunni militant push across Iraq in recent weeks. Eighth people were wounded in that attack, said the police official. Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

Iraq is on track for a strong month of oil sales, as southern fields increase output into revamped export infrastructure.The success of the southern oil sector to date has been essential, partly compensating for the loss of nearly all Iraqi production and refining capacity north of Baghdad, following a massive insurgent offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Making good on growth plans will be equally as important."Currently our output is estimated at 3.15 million… 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 .

Click here to view full article at www.iraqoilreport.com

The Islamic State’s Anbar Division released a series of photos that purport to document the overrunning of Iraqi Army bases in the city of Haditha. Nineteen photographs captioned with "Charging at a number of barracks of the Savafid army in the city of Haditha" were released yesterday on the jihadist group’s Twitter feed. At least one military outpost appears to have been overrun in the attack. The exact location of the base was not disclosed. The photographs show a convoy of Islamic State technicals, or pickup trucks with machine guns mounted in the beds, advancing through the desert, stopping, and taking up position to fire on the outpost. The Islamic State deployed at least one mortar team during the attack. At one point, a squad of Islamic State fighters is photographed entering the base. The Iraqi combat outpost appears to have been manned by troops. The bodies of several […]

Click here to view full article at www.longwarjournal.org

BAGHDAD — By 1 p.m. on Friday almost every Christian in Mosul had heard the Sunni militants’ message — they had until noon Saturday to leave the city. Men, women and children piled into neighbors’ cars, some begged for rides to the city limits and hoped to get taxis to the nearest Christian villages. They took nothing more than the clothes on their backs, according to several who were reached late Friday. The order from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria came after Christians decided not to attend a meeting that ISIS had arranged for Thursday night to discuss their status. “We were so afraid to go,” said Duraid Hikmat, an expert on minorities who had done research for years in Mosul. He fled two weeks ago to Al Qosh, a largely Christian town barely an hour away, but his extended family left on Friday. Since 2003, when […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq said Wednesday it was upset with arbitration statements made by Emirati energy company Dana Gas. Dana said in a Sunday statement it was successful with its application in an international court of arbitration in London against the semiautonomous KRG. The company said the court called for the restoration of "regular payments" owed to it by KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources KRG said Wednesday the company violated a confidentiality clause in relation to the arbitration rules and subsequently aims to correct what it says were misleading statements by Dana Gas. "Contrary to the assertions by Dana Gas, no sums are ‘outstanding’ from the KRG to Dana Gas," it said . Further, KRG said Dana owes it $4.8 billion and the tribunal has yet to make a final determination on the issues of the case. The Kurdish government said it would "vigorously" pursue its own […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

Iraqi troops and their militia and volunteer allies were on the verge of declaring victory over Sunni militants holding the strategic town of Tikrit and were about to hoist the Iraqi flag over key government buildings, when, a survivor recalled Wednesday, “the doors of hell opened.” The Iraqi forces had apparently walked into a trap, and some soldiers — and many more of their untrained volunteer supporters — were either killed or badly wounded when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria sprung it, according to accounts from two soldiers and volunteer leaders reached by telephone afterward. The debacle in Tikrit on Tuesday offered a vivid illustration of how badly the Iraqi military needs advisers. For weeks, the Americans had implored Iraqi leaders not to fight for the centers of cities, but to establish control of roads and highways, and thus set their own conditions for battle. […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Kirkuk oil starts to flow into Kurdistan A worker maintains production at the North Oil Company in Kirkuk. A worker for Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company tends to a pipeline in Kirkuk, in 2003. (ED KASHI/Corbis) Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has begun pumping crude from Kirkuk into its own independent oil infrastructure, days after Kurdish Peshmerga forces took full control of fields that have long been managed by Iraq’s federal government.The flow of oil signals the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) intention to continue solidifying its control over Kirkuk, the epicenter of a decade-long territorial dispute. The move is also likely to exacerbate the political divisions between Iraqi Prime …

Click here to view full article at www.iraqoilreport.com

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said it denounced the takeover of two key crude oil production facilities by Kurdish military forces in the north of the country. "The Ministry of Oil calls on the Kurdish people to understand the seriousness of the situation and directs those responsible for the action to retreat from the oil fields to avoid punishment," the ministry said in a statement Sunday. Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, took control over two key oil facilities in the north of Iraq last week. The seizure comes after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Kurds of being on the wrong side of the fight against a growing Sunni insurgency. The ministry said Friday the Kurdish force should fight against Sunni-led insurgents rather than occupying oil fields in the north of Iraq. In its statement Sunday, the ministry described the seizure as irresponsible and a blatant disregard […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

Iraq’s army and Shi’ite militia forces launched an assault on Tuesday to retake the city of Tikrit from Islamist militants as parliamentarians in Baghdad prepared to vote for a new speaker, a possible step towards breaking months of political deadlock. The Defense Ministry said ground troops backed by air support began their offensive at dawn against insurgents, led by the al Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State, who have held Tikrit since mid-June. If the army and its militia allies retake Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, it would be the first insurgent-held city to switch back to government control since Iraq’s latest crisis erupted last month. The offensive took place as Iraq’s deeply divided parliament met for a third session aimed at forming a new government to tackle the insurgency, three months after the country held a parliamentary election. Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose State of […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com