Iraq

You were waiting for this… right? The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) who are backed by Iran, that they’ve helped push the Islamic State from much of Iraq, is training its sights on the remaining U.S.-led coalition troops scattered across the country. The 100,000-thousand-member force has fought both with and against Americans in Iraq. This can […]

The current count is 80 people wounded and five dead in Iraqi Kurdistan as a result of massive protests held in response to a denial for independence after September’s referendum vote. Kurdish citizens predominantly voted in favor of cession from the Iraqi government and Baghdad’s stranglehold on Kurdistan’s economy, but Iraq responded swiftly with the […]

2017 has been a roller coaster — both in the US and abroad, the year ends with the world in a very different place from where it was 12 months ago. Now, as has become our tradition, the Business Insider military-and-defense team will predict the future. In the past, we’ve done well. Last year we correctly […]

During my time embedded with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, I spent the majority of it in a training and advising role when not conducting combat operations. With this position I have come to acquire a vast amount of experience in what it requires to train soldiers to specific standards. There are basically two routes when it […]

Iraqi government officials said that Iraq hanged 38 jihadists, 37 Iraqis, and one Swedish citizen, belonging to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaida for terrorism offenses on Thursday in the southern city of Nasiriyah. It was the largest number of executions in Iraq on a single day since September 25 when 42 people were put […]

They heeded a Shia leader’s call-to-arms, were equipped and trained by Iran’s elite military and were forged in the crucible of war against the Islamic State. In little more than three years the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units, have risen from disparate alliance of volunteer militias to become a battle-tested force in Iraq. We […]

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi publicly announced that the three-year war aimed at driving the Islamic State out of Iraq was successful and has come to an end. But what he didn’t do was acknowledge the role the Iraqi Kurds played in the defeating of ISIS. And that has the peshmerga forces rightfully mad. “Our […]

Three years after militants from the Islamic State captured nearly a third of the nation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared final victory over ISIS in a televised address to his nation on Saturday. Haider al-Abadi’s speech comes two days after Russia announced victory over the same terrorist organization in Syria, where their military […]

The historian carried secrets too heavy for one man to bear. He packed his bag with his most treasured possessions before going to bed: the 1 terabyte hard drive with his evidence against the Islamic State group, an orange notebook half-filled with notes on Ottoman history, and, a keepsake, the first book from Amazon delivered […]

A high-level defector from Kurdish-led forces that captured the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State has recanted his account of the city’s fall, saying thousands of IS fighters – many more than first reported – left under a secret, U.S.-approved deal. Talal Silo, a former commander in the Syrian Democratic Forces, said the SDF […]

BAGHDAD – Mustafa Nader is sitting in his eclectically decorated bedroom in Baghdad, complete with an Arabic translation of George Orwell’s 1984, the pages of French novels pasted on his walls as wallpaper, and a jumble of camera boxes. The young photographer is one of a new wave of young Iraqis hoping to convey a more positive image […]

Fatou Bensouda, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said on Monday there is a “reasonable basis” to believe that some British soldiers committed war crimes during combat operations in the US-led invasion of Iraq. Bensouda’s statement said, that in a 74-page report on preliminary inquiries that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that members […]