Category: Iraq

If Turkey allows Kurdistan to export oil without Baghdad’s permission, it would likely break a treaty with Iraq, adding a huge layer of legal risk to KRG oil sales. Nearly five months after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) finalized a strategic energy agreement with Turkey, the deal has lost momentum: more than 1.5 million barrels of crude from Kurdistan have been pumped into tanks by the Turkish shore, ready for sale to international buyers – but they remain unsold.One key reason for the holdup is that Turkey may not lawfully be able to facilitate autonomous KRG exports unless Baghdad agrees, according to an international treaty between Iraq and…

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The Iraqi government said Tuesday that it had closed the Abu Ghraib prison, the site of a notorious prisoner abuse scandal during the American occupation of Iraq, because of fears that it could be overrun by Sunni insurgents who have gained strength over the last year. In a statement, the Justice Ministry said it had moved 2,400 prisoners to other high-security prisons in central and northern Iraq, adding that Abu Ghraib’s location — west of central Baghdad and on the edge of insurgent-controlled areas of Anbar Province — had become a “hot zone.” It was not clear whether the closing was permanent, or if the prison might reopen if the Sunni insurgency is tamed. But it nevertheless underscored the rapid deterioration of security in Iraq since the beginning of the year, when insurgents captured Falluja, a short drive from the prison, from which hundreds of inmates escaped […]

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Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, looks out the cockpit window of a military helicopter at the thin blue waterway below – the site of one of the fiercest battles in modern history. The Russian-made chopper, part of Iraq’s tiny Air Force, winds its way along the Shatt al-Arab waterway, on the border with Iran, which has shaped the two countries’ tumultuous past. Skip to next paragraph At low tide, the carcasses of destroyed oil tankers are half sunk into the ocher mud. They are rusting relics from a devastating eight-year war three decades ago that began over access to the shallow ribbon of water – Iraq’s only lane to the deep-sea waters of the Gulf. "When you see it on the ground, you see how sensitive these issues are … and how stupid decisions destroyed this country," says Mr. Zebari, a onetime Kurdish guerrilla who fought Saddam Hussein’s regime […]

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Iraqi security forces have killed 24 more militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the ongoing security operation in the restive Anbar province, the joint operations command said. Army and police forces engaged a group of militant in the Halabsa district of Fallujah, killing four and injuring many others, the command said in a press statement. Twenty other militants were killed in separate attacks across the western province, it added. The statement, however, did not indicate when these clashes took place. Since last December, the Iraqi army has waged a major offensive in the Sunni-majority Anbar province with the stated aim of flushing militants – who Baghdad claims are linked to Al-Qaeda – out of the key cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. Many local Sunni tribes opposed to Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government, meanwhile, have continued to voice anger over the […]

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A suicide bomber blew up himself near a security checkpoint in Kirkuk on Sunday. BAGHDAD — Militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria gained control of the main road that links Baghdad with the northern provinces for a short time on Sunday, while a series of explosions around Iraq left up to 25 dead, according to security forces. In the deadliest blast of the day, a car bomb was detonated as a joint patrol for the police and army passed through Mosul in the north, killing 10 and wounding 12 others, the security forces said. Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a powerful jihadist group once affiliated with Al Qaeda, kidnapped five people, including an oil executive, who were traveling on the road in Salahuddin Province that links the north to the capital. All of the attacks came less than a week after the […]

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Fallujah: Insurgents in Iraq have added water to their arsenal of weapons after seizing control of a dam in the west of the country that enables them to flood certain areas and prevent security forces from advancing against them. The dam helps distribute water from the Euphrates river on its course through the western province of Anbar, and is located some 5 kilometres south of the city of Fallujah, which was overrun by militants early this year. Iraqi troops have since been surrounding Fallujah and shelling the city in an effort to dislodge anti-government tribes and insurgent factions including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). In February, Isil took control of the Nuaimiya area where the dam is located, and began fortifying their positions with concrete blast walls and sand bags, according to anti-government tribesmen who said no other groups were involved in the takeover. The […]

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Fighters in Iraq have added water to their arsenal of weapons after seizing control of a dam in the west of the country that enables them to flood certain areas and prevent government security forces from advancing against them. The dam helps distribute water from the Euphrates River on its course through the western province of Anbar, and is located some 3 miles south of the city of Fallujah, which was overrun by anti-government fighters early this year. Iraqi troops have since been surrounding Fallujah and shelling the city in an effort to  dislodge anti-government groups, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant  (ISIL). Iraq is a patchwork of desert and arable land. Its inhabitable areas are fed by the Tigris from Turkey, the Euphrates from Turkey and Syria, and a network of smaller rivers from Iran. The decline of water levels in the Euphrates has also […]

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As new offshore export facilities come online, Iraq has the opportunity to increase oil sales, despite enduring security and infrastructure challenges. Iraq’s single point mooring (SPM) buoys in the Basra Gulf exported an average 829,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in March, a new high for the expansion of the southern export system."Total exports from SPMs was 25.7 million barrels in March," said a senior official involved in Iraqi oil exports.This month a new export platform will be fully operational, and by mid-year a third SPM will be ready for use, further increasing southern oil export capacity.Iraq has made nearly $15 bill…

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A ditch is being built on the northern Iraqi border with Syria to prevent terrorists from Syria crossing over into the Kurdish administered region, the Kurdish Regional Government authorities said. Bulldozers at a border village of Mosul’s Zumar district are digging a 17 km long, two meter wide, three meter deep ditch, according to a Kurdish peshmerga general, who wishes to remain anonymous. "This region is the transit route for terrorists. They cross our border from here and they commit bomb attacks in Iraq’s different regions," said the general to AA reporter emphasizing the importance of blocking the border for their security. Meanwhile, Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), a political offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) increasing its control in northwestern Syria, protested against the KDP decision to build the ditch. A group of around one thousand PYD-affiliated people demonstrated near the ditch, […]

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As militants seize control of a dam in Fallujah, the government is planning for April 30 elections in which worsening security problems will not allow many Anbar residents to vote. Iraqi men move a boat that was stuck on the banks of the Euphrates river in Twairij, roughly 20 kilometers east of Karbala, due to a decline in the water level after supplies were blocked by anti-government fighters who control access to the Fallujah dam further upstream in conflict-hit Anbar province on April 8, 2014. (MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images) The militants controlling the Fallujah dam were skeptical at first, reluctant to grant an interview with their leader.But after a thorough questioning, a pat-down, confiscation of mobile phones, and an agreement to preserve the anonymity of the fighters, Iraq Oil Report was introduced to a man who called himself only "al-Hajji."Dressed in a traditional Afghan-style robe but speaking a distinctively Anbari […]

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