Category: Iraq

t "Vital areas" of the city of Mosul have been seized, Iraq’s prime minister said Continue reading the main story As many as 500,000 people have been forced to flee the Iraqi city of Mosul after Islamist militants effectively took control of it, the International Organization for Migration says. Troops were among those fleeing as hundreds of jihadists from the ISIS group overran the city and much of the surrounding province of Nineveh. ISIS has now reportedly taken Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. PM Nouri Maliki has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. The US said the development showed ISIS was a threat to the entire region. ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is also known as ISIL – is an offshoot of al-Qaeda. It now controls considerable territory in […]

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

ISIS closing in on Baiji and energy infrastructure The al-Qaida splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is moving on the Baiji refinery and other energy infrastructure, one facet of a coordinated campaign that has seen it take over the city of Mosul entirely while spreading thin remaining Iraqi security forces, many of which abandoned post in Mosul and other areas on Tuesday. Successfully taking over Baiji, Iraq’s largest and frequently attacked refinery, would be a harrowing coup for ISIS and its allied insurgent and tribal f… 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 result of April’s Iraqi parliament election may have been announced in mid-May, but there is still no sign of compromise among the deeply divided parties and blocs. Many of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s critics were expecting his State of Law coalition, an offshoot of the Shiite al-Daawa Party, to lose its parliamentary majority. His previous Shiite allies and today’s opponents are to form a coalition to oppose a third term for al-Maliki, who has been ruling since 2005. But al-Maliki’s opponents were disappointed. In the polls, his list still won far more seats in the forthcoming parliament than any other – but with only 92 out of 328, still came far short of anything like a majority. This forced them into another round of fraught negotiations to cobble together a coalition, just as in 2010 – and just as in 2010, it is proving to be a long […]

Click here to view full article at theconversation.com

Shipping data show tanker United Leadership, loaded with oil from the Kurdish north of Iraq, is still in the Atlantic Ocean because of Moroccan port issues. Moroccan authorities last weekend ordered the vessel to leave its territorial waters. United Leadership is loaded with more than 1 million barrels of Kurdish oil taken May 22 from the Turkish sea port of Ceyhan. It’s still idled in the Atlantic Ocean because of Moroccan port delays. There was no indication Monday of a new destination . The tanker’s May departure frustrated a central Iraqi government in Baghdad that says Kurdish oil sales are a violation of the national constitution. The semiautonomous Kurdish government said it was operating according to the rule of law. Last week, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said he is opposed to Baghdad’s objections because income from the oil sales would be distributed among the Iraqis themselves. Turkey’s main […]

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

ISTANBUL—Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region shipped a second cargo of oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Monday, doubling the amount of crude it has exported since late May even as the fate of a first shipment remains unclear amid legal threats from Baghdad. The United Emblem, registered in Greece, arrived in the Mediterranean Turkish port Sunday morning from Spain and set sail for an undisclosed destination at 2:15 p.m. local time on Monday, according to data from ship-tracking websites. Palmali Shipping, which acted as the ship’s agent, confirmed that the vessel was loaded at Ceyhan and sailed Monday. The tanker is carrying about a million barrels of crude from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, according to two people familiar with the shipment. Kurdistan sent its maiden voyage of crude exports from the port late last month. The region has been pumping its oil from northern Iraq to Turkey since […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

ISTANBUL—Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region shipped a second cargo of oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Monday, doubling the amount of crude it has exported since late May even as the fate of a first shipment remains unclear amid legal threats from Baghdad. The United Emblem, registered in Greece, arrived in the Mediterranean Turkish port Sunday morning from Spain and set sail for an undisclosed destination at 2:15 p.m. local time on Monday, according to data from ship-tracking websites. Palmali Shipping, which acted as the ship’s agent, confirmed that the vessel was loaded at Ceyhan and sailed Monday. The tanker is carrying about a million barrels of crude from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, according to two people familiar with the shipment. Kurdistan sent its maiden voyage of crude exports from the port late last month. The region has been pumping its oil from northern Iraq to Turkey since […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Iraqi officials say 15 people have been killed and more than two dozen have been wounded in a bomb attack on a funeral in the central city of Baqouba. Tuesday’s attack happened as insurgents further north overran symbols of government authority in the city of Mosul. Police say the explosion struck mourners gathered for the funeral of a Sunni university professor killed a day earlier. Police officials say the attack killed 15 people and wounded at least 27. A hospital official confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information. Baqouba is a city that is home to both Sunnis and Shiiites about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. Iraqi police and army forces abandoned their posts in the […]

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

Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region shipped a second cargo of oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Monday, doubling the amount of crude it has exported since late May even as the fate of a first shipment remains unclear amid legal threats from Baghdad. The United Emblem, registered in Greece, arrived in the Mediterranean Turkish port Sunday morning from Spain and set sail for an undisclosed destination at 2:15 p.m. local time on Monday, according to data from ship-tracking websites. Palmali Shipping, which acted as the ship’s agent, confirmed that the vessel was loaded at Ceyhan and sailed Monday. The tanker is carrying about a million barrels of crude from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, according to two people familiar with the shipment. Kurdistan sent its maiden voyage of crude exports from the port late last month. The region has been pumping its oil from northern Iraq to Turkey since […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region shipped a second cargo of oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Monday, doubling the amount of crude it has exported since late May even as the fate of a first shipment remains unclear amid legal threats from Baghdad. The United Emblem, registered in Greece, arrived in the Mediterranean Turkish port Sunday morning from Spain and set sail for an undisclosed destination at 2:15 p.m. local time on Monday, according to data from ship-tracking websites. Palmali Shipping, which acted as the ship’s agent, confirmed that the vessel was loaded at Ceyhan and sailed Monday. The tanker is carrying about a million barrels of crude from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, according to two people familiar with the shipment. Kurdistan sent its maiden voyage of crude exports from the port late last month. The region has been pumping its oil from northern Iraq to Turkey since […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Iraq security forces move towards Mosul on 8 June 2014 Reinforcements deployed to Mosul by the Iraqi military have failed to halt the militants’ advance Militants have taken control of parts of Mosul, officials say, on a fifth day of fighting in the northern Iraqi city. Overnight, hundreds of men armed with rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and machine-guns seized the provincial government’s headquarters. They also destroyed several police stations before moving towards the top-security prison and military airport. On Tuesday morning, one interior ministry official said Mosul was "outside the control of the state". In the past week, the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and its allies have carried out major attacks on cities and towns in western and northern Iraq, killing scores of people. Parts of Ramadi, the capital of the western province […]

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